LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Church 



and the Churches 



A COURSE OF EPIPHANY SERMONS. 



1!Y THE 



REV. THOMAS SPENCER, 



Fee to r of St . J oh >t ' g Oi u rch^Ttti 



Richmond, 

Bbckwith & PARHAli 




-St 



COPTKIOHT, 1884, 

by 

THOMAS SPENCER. 



McCai.la & Stately, Pks., 
Phila, Pa. 



CONTENTS. 

PACE. 
The Church and the Churches 5 

The Roman Catholic Church 19 

The Church of England 32 

The Presbyterian Churches 46 

The Baptist Churches 60 

The Methodist Churches 75 

The Protestant Episcopal Church 89 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

It is with some misgivings that I send forth 
this little book. It was no part of my original 
purpose to print these sermons ; they were in- 
tended simply for my own little congregation. 
Friends who thought better of them than I do, 
persuaded me to print them. Perhaps I yielded 
too readily to their persuasions. But, wherever 
they ought to be, here they are. If they shall do 
any good, I shall be profoundly thankful. I 
hardly think they can do any harm. If they 
shall be deemed neither good nor bad, but indif- 
ferent, I must seek consolation in the fact that 
the issuing of indifferent books is not an offence 
unheard of or unforgiven. I hope I shall not be 
driven to seek that consolation. 

There is, evidently, no attempt at completeness 
made herein. Except in the case of the Church 
of England — a topic of special interest to Episco- , 
palians — I have treated only of the Churches 
represented in our city. 

T. S. 
Petersburg, Va., 
March 12 \ 1884. 



No. I. 
THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 

Philipfiians I. 15-18. 

" Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; 
and some also of good will : The one preach Christ 
of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add afflic- 
tion to my bonds : But the other of love, knowing 
that I am set for the defence of the Gospel. What 
then? Nothwithstanding, every way, whether in 
pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached ; and I 
therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." 

THE great topic of the Epiphany season 
is that of the manifestation of our 
Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and 
the Saviour of Men. During His life on 
earth that manifestation was made in wonder- 
ful, miraculous manner. A strange star 
guided wise men from the East to the man- 
ger bed at Bethlehem, there to find and wor- 
ship the King of kings. A glorious trans- 
figuration gave assurance of His Divine 
dignity to the inner circle of His. Apostles. 
In all His ministry, from Cana to Bethany, 

(5) 



6 THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 

were constantly recurring miracles which 
proclaimed Him Son of God. These mir- 
acles, with their revelation of His Divine 
glory and deep human sympathy, are favour- 
ite topics in the Epiphany season. 

It cannot, I think, be foreign to the spirit 
of this season, that we should ask ourselves 
the question : After what manner has Christ 
been manifested to men during the more 
than eighteen centuries that have gone by 
since His ascension into heaven? The 
-answer is, of course : Not now by such mir- 
acles as were wrought during His life on 
earth, for these seem to have ceased with the 
Apostolic age, but through the agencies oper- 
ated by His holy Church. The Church of 
Christ, then, and her manifestations of her 
Lord and Saviour, will furnish us with topics 
eminently befitting this season of the Chris- 
tian year. 

And what and where is the Church of 
Christ ? Laying aside all controversy as to 
the true notes of the Church, I use the term 
in that wide, charitable sense in which our 
Prayer Book uses it when it defines the 
l . ' Holy Church Universal ' ' as " all who pro- 
fess and call themselves Christians." And, 
without determining anything as to the rival 
claims of different Christian bodies, I shall 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 7 

imitate the charity and courtesy of the Pref- 
ace to our Prayer Book in speaking of their 
organizations as "churches." I do not 
thereby affirm anything as to the lawfulness 
of their government, or the general correct- 
ness of their doctrines \ but use toward them 
the same courtesy which I would fain find 
them use when they speak of my own church. 

When we speak of the Church of Christ, 
there comes before us the vision of many 
bodies bearing diverse names, and holding 
different positions on many matters of doc- 
trine and discipline. Each claims to hold 
and teach God's truth more perfectly than 
the rest. Some of them seem to contend far 
more earnestly with the others than against 
the common foe. To most of us these di- 
visions of Christendom are a matter of regret 
and lamentation. We long for a closer union 
between the severed portions of Christ's 
Church. We see our forces wasted in the 
perpetuation of these divisions. We fear the 
Spirit of Christ is often grieved by the bitter- 
ness of our controversies. 

Let us for a brief space turn back and view 
the primitive condition of Christ's Church, 
then let us ask about the origin of these di- 
visions, and their results. 



8 THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 

i. The Primitive Church. — A very beau- 
tiful picture is that of the Church which is 
presented us in the early chapters of the 
Book of Acts. Brave men took their lives 
in their hands on the day of Pentecost, and 
proclaimed the crucified and risen Jesus to 
be the Son of God and Saviour of Men. 
Their proclamation was blessed. Multi- 
tudes repented and believed, and were ad- 
mitted by baptism into the Christian fellow- 
ship. It was the fellowship of a loving 
family, in which rich and poor were on terms 
of equal brotherhood. The love which 
bound them to the Saviour bound them also 
to each other. They had all things common. 
The peace of God was with them, and cheer- 
ed them in their trials. The love of Christ 
was shed abroad in their hearts, and inspired 
them to deeds of love. 

But we have not to go outside of the Apos- 
tolic age to find the beginning of discord in 
the Church. A Judaizing party tried to 
narrow the catholic spirit of the Gospel. 
There were Gentile Christians who were try- 
ing to accommodate the Gospel to their out- 
worn philosophies. Pharisaism and Sad- 
duceeism were reproducing themselves in the 
Christian Church, as under various names 
they have been doing ever since. But though 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 9 

there were rival parties in the Apostolic age, 
the New Testament gives us no hint of rival 
organizations. 

For a long time after the Apostolic age, 
the Church of Christ remained one in doc- 
trine and discipline. The spirit of error, 
indeed, never ceased to make assaults upon 
her faith. Here and there arose heretics and 
evildoers, as in St. Paul's time, who were 
excluded from the Christian fellowship. By 
and by these gathered around them followers, 
and under the names of Montanists, Gnos- 
tics, or Manicheans, formed organizations 
separate from the Church, holding faiths 
which were strangely compounded of Chris- 
tian and heathen elements. But all these 
organizations have long since passed out of 
existence. The grave has prevailed against 
them. Early in the fourth century a con- 
troversy, respecting the Divinity of Christ, 
rent the Church in twain, and later sprang 
up the schisms of the Novatians and Donat- 
ists. But time healed these diversities. 
Again almost all professing Christians be- 
came of one communion and fellowship. 
It was not until the year 1054, that the first 
of the greater divisions of Christendom was 
finally consummated, when the Eastern and 
Western Churches solemnly excommunicated 



10 THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 

each other ; and not until the sixteenth cen- 
tury that the Roman Church and the various 
bodies called Protestant were separated from 
each other. 

2. The question, What was the origin 
of these divisions which we now observe in 
the Church ? is not easy to answer briefly. 
Some of them have had their beginning in 
the disturbing forces of human pride ; forces 
which our Lord saw working even in the 
breasts of His Apostles, when He rebuked 
their contention as to which should be the 
greatest in His kingdom by setting a little 
child in the midst of them. Beneath the 
other alleged causes for the separation of the 
Eastern and Western Churches, was the 
rivalry of the Bishops of Rome and Con- 
stantinople for the position of highest power 
and honour in the Church. And of such 
rivalries have sprung, no doubt, many of the 
divisions of these modern times. 

Again, some of these divisions have come 
about through the pressure of circumstances 
which the separatists could not at the time 
control. So it was with the Churches of the 
Reformation, when they unwillingly lost 
their Episcopal government, before they con- 
tented themselves with that which they now 
retain. So it was with the Methodists of 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 11 

the last century, when they vainly strove to 
remain in the communion of the Church of 
England, and with their fiery zeal to arouse 
her out of the stupour into which she had 
fallen. The blame of that separation rested 
not upon the Methodists who went out so 
unwillingly, but upon the foolish Churchmen 
who drave them out. 

And chief among the reasons of these di- 
visions is that of honest differences of relig- 
ious convictions. Such differences are not 
confined to the sphere of religious things. 
We have different schools of thought in phi- 
losophy, science, and medicine, as well as in 
theology. We cannot read far in the litera- 
ture of any art or science, without meeting 
with the clash of conflicting theories respect- 
ing the very first principles of that art or 
science. It is strange, no doubt, that men 
view the same things so differently; but 
strange or simple, the fact that they do thus 
differ, and that they do so intelligently and 
honestly, is beyond dispute. And the world 
goes on, and these arts and sciences make 
progress, in spite of such differences, if not 
by means of them. 

Now we Christians hold the supremacy of 
conscience. What a man conscientiously 
believes to be his duty, that we hold him 



12 THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 

bound to do. His conscience may be im- 
perfectly informed ; yet, still it binds. He 
ought to seek all the light that he can get ; 
but he must act upon the light he has. We 
may pity a misguided conscience, but the 
man who unswervingly follows it deserves 
our respect. And, because I believe that so 
many of those who differ from me in relig- 
ious faith do so at the bidding of their con- 
science, I cannot bring myself to think or 
speak of them in the terms of harsh denun- 
ciation which some are fond of using. Even 
if they are in error, God may see far more 
to approve in their honest cleaving to that 
error, than in another man's less earnest pro- 
fession of the truth. And when the word of 
blame would rise to my lips, I find its utter- 
ance checked by the remembrance of St. 
Paul's words : " Who art thou that judgest 
another? To his own master he standeth 
or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up : for 
God is able to make him stand." 

3. What, then, are the results of these di- 
visions ? Most of us think first of evil re- 
sults. If we had our way we would have all 
Christians to make the same profession of 
faith ; to worship in the same manner; to be 
united in the same organization, under the 
same government. It will come to that by 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 13 

and by, we feel sure, when Christ's people 
shall be gathered together in the New Jeru- 
salem. And we long to anticipate the heav- 
enly blessing of that perfect union. 

Well, no doubt, there are many evil results 
growing out of our divisions. They minis- 
ter oftentimes to strifes and jealousies. 
They cause us sometimes to hold God's truth 
disproportionately ; to set a higher impor- 
tance on the lesser matters in which we dif- 
fer from each other, than upon the greater 
matters in which we are at one. They in- 
volve a great waste of means and energy. 
Much strength is spent in contests with each 
other that would be far more profitably spent 
in striving against the enemies of the Gos- 
pel. Men outside the Church, viewing our 
unhappy divisions, distrust us when we pro- 
fess to bear to them God's truth ; tell us 
that first we should agree among ourselves, 
and then we may hope to bring conviction 
to others. 

Yes, we see enough of harm growing out 
of these divisions, to make us long for closer 
unity ; as when in poverty we long for some 
measure of riches, as when in sickness we 
long for health, as when in time of mortal 
danger we long for life. 

But we are believers in the overruling 



14 THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCES. 

providence of God. As such we recognize 
that poverty and sickness, pain and sorrow, 
and even death, may have a mission of good 
to us. When these things come upon us, 
not through our own choice or fault, we 
comfort ourselves with the thought that they 
come by His permission, and trust that He 
will make them work out what is best for us. 
Have we ground for this trust in our own 
case ; and no ground for it when we consider 
the troubles that have befallen His Church ? 
Nay ! Rather, I think, is it the part of Chris- 
tian believers to trust that even in those 
things which we deplore, and against which 
we strive, an All-wise Providence is bringing 
good to His Church. To my own mind, it 
would seem like making shipwreck of my 
faith in God's providence, to believe that 
our divisions were the unmitigated evils 
which some people represent them to be. 
Evil fruits, no doubt, they do bear, but 
some good there must be off-setting this evil, 
or surely, God would not have permitted 
them. 

We may not see all this good now. It 
may need the revelation of the Great Day to 
make it known to us. But a part of it we 
may perhaps see even now. Doubtless these 
divisions, which minister so often to strifes 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 13 

and jealousies, excite honest zeal no less 
than envious ambition. We provoke one 
another unto good works, and are, perchance, 
more fruitful than we should be were there 
no rival Christian organizations by our sick-. 
And when we note how often our divisions 

follow the lines of difference in human tem- 
perament, we cannot but hope that the I 
pel of Christ, presented in such varied man- 
ner, finds a wider acceptani e among men 
than it would otherwi 

And if this hope be true, we may rejoice 
in view n\ it, without abating aught from the 
sincerity of our own convictions. In so far 
irist is preached, let us rejoice, whether 
those who preach Him regard us with envy 
and strife, or with good will. And if men 
blame us for our rejoicing we will fall back 
upon the example of tfa si of Apostles, 

who, though he held unswervingly his own 
LCtions, and did not hesitate to denounce 
the errors of his opponents, yet could distin- 
guish between the good and the evil of their 
work, and could thank God for the good, 
wherever he found it. 

And of this I feel certain : that if the re- 
union of Christendom is ever to be brought 
about, it will not be by magnifying our dif- 
ferences, and denouncing one another. Men 



16 THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 

are not much drawn to seek the fellowship 
of those who denounce them. It is a poor 
way to draw people together to be always 
telling them how widely they are apart. Let 
us tell more of each other's good things than 
of each other's evil. Let us dwell more 
upon the things in which we agree, than upon 
those in which we differ. Just in the pro- 
portion in which we see that we hold the 
same foundation truths, the same hopes, and 
the same aims, will be our desire that the 
barriers which separate us may be broken 
down. And whether these barriers be 
broken down or not, our work will not suf- 
fer, nor will we be any the worse, for a little 
more of the leaven of Christian charity. 

It is in the interest of this Christian chari- 
ty, and not of controversial strife, that I 
propose, in this course of sermons, to speak 
of some of the Churches around us. I do 
not purpose to magnify our differences, and 
to pick out faults. It is not that I think 
these are of no importance, but that, even 
in cases where prejudice has well-nigh blind- 
ed us to all but faults, our agreements are 
more and greater. Too much have we been 
disposed to blame each other ; we can well 
afford to speak for each other a word of 
praise. 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 17 

And lest some should confound with laxity 
of conviction the spirit of broad Christian 
charity to which I hope these sermons will 
give expression, let me say that I remain so 
firmly attached to the distinctive principles 
of my own Church, that I could not feel satis- 
fied in any other. I quite well remember 
that I am occupying a pulpit of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church, and am willing to 
be brought to account for any teaching not 
in harmony with her standards. If some of 
those who hear me shall come to think that 
this Church offers the broadest platform on 
which may stand those men of diverse views 
who long for Christian reunion, I shall not 
quarrel with that conviction. If these ser- 
mons shall remove from any minds the idea 
of our exclusiveness, and leave in its place 
the belief that we are broader in our Chris- 
tian charity than they had dreamt aforetime, 
I shall do my Church a truer service than by 
any denunciation of those who differ from 
us. 

Thankful am I to believe that, with no lack 
of faithfulness to the Church in which I min- 
ister, I shall be able to approve so much in 
those who are not within her pale \ to greet 
them as brethren, in spite of differences 
which keep us somewhat apart ; to rejoice in 



18 THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHES. 

their work, bidding them God-speed ; and 
out of a full heart to give them the Apostolic 
greeting : " Grace be with all them that love 
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.' ' 



No. II. 
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Romans i. y-8. 

" To all that be in Rome beloved of God, called to be 
saints : Grace to you and peace, from God our Fa- 
ther and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my 
God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your 
faith is spoken of throughout the 'whole world." 

IT is not the fashion among Protestant 
Christians to speak kindly words about 
the Roman Church. Perhaps it may be re- 
torted that neither is it the fashion in the 
Roman Church to speak kindly words about 
Protestants. The more is the pity if it be so, 
for if, in very truth, those on both sides ot 
the line which divides us are earnestly striv- 
ing to serve God, then each, however he may 
deplore what he regards as the errors of his 
opponents, may respect the earnestness of 
those opponents. 

How different is it with us in our contro- 
versies ! Gall and wormwood cannot excel 
in bitterness the odium theologicum which has 

(19) 



20 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

entered into many of these controversies. 
Heat of passion and stubborn prejudice blind 
us oftentimes alike to our own defects and 
the excellencies of those who differ from us. 
The very courts of human law may teach fair- 
ness to us who profess to expound Divine 
law; for they account one innocent until 
proven guilty, and we oft seem to believe 
our opponents guilty until proven innocent. 
In all this we do despite to the spirit of God's 
grace, wrong to our opponents, and harm to 
ourselves. And while this charge may, per- 
haps, be brought against our controversies 
generally, it applies more especially to those 
between Protestants and Roman Catholics. 
There are many well-meaning Protestants 
who will see no good in Roman Catholicism 
or its followers. To them the Roman sys- 
tem is one great festering mass of error; 
Roman worship a lifeless formalism ; Roman 
worshippers devoid of true spiritual religion, 
and the Roman Pope a proud, grasping, and 
vengeful tyrant. 

Now, I am quite well aware that the points 
at issue between my Church and that of 
Rome are many. These issues I believe to 
be important. Unhesitatingly I espouse the 
Anglican against the Roman position, in the 
matters wherein we differ. And yet, fully bear- 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 21 

ing in mind all these differences, I can use, re- 
specting the Roman Church of these days, the 
words which St. Paul uses in the text of that 
Church in its infant days ; can greet its mem- 
bers as fellow-Christians, whether they so 
greet me or not \ can earnestly desire for 
them God's grace and peace, and can sin- 
cerely thank God for their wonderful and 
widespread work. 

I. I honour in her communion those who 
are " beloved of God, called saints." 

After all, the training up of such people 
is the great work of Christ's Church. It is 
in their holy lives that our Lord sees of the 
travail of His soul, and is satisfied. And 
very fruitful has the Roman Church been in 
the bringing forth of such holy lives. Mul- 
titudes of the best of God's saints have been 
trained in her communion ; of those most en- 
tirely consecrated in their self-denials, and 
most spiritual in their worship — their conse- 
cration marred by no selfish aims — their 
spirituality such as no excess of formalism 
could cramp. They loved Christ with a love 
that was deep and strong, and the reverence 
they bore His saints was born of their love 
for Him; and the prayers they offered to 
His saints were for intercessions that should 



22 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

bring them nearer Him. They did not 
mean to take aught from His glory ; they did 
not mean to put any one on an equality with 
Him. If they erred, it was an error born of 
that reverent fear which cannot realize that 
such poor sinners as we are can approach 
directly to the Divine Saviour; an error 
which was their misfortune rather than their 
sin ; and there was more piety in their error 
than there is in some men's orthodoxy in 
this matter. The brightness of their holy 
examples lingers to illuminate us in our 
heavenward pilgrimage; and most devoutly 
may we thank God for the inspiration and 
the help which comes to us from many a holy 
life lived in the Church of Rome. The 
spirit of their piety has breathed itself out 
in hymns so sweet and true that all Chris- 
tian communions have been glad to make 
them their own, such as that of St. Fran- 
cis Xavier which we sang just before this 
sermon, and that of dear Frederick W. Fa- 
ber, which we shall sing at its close. Yea, 
truly, in the Church of Rome to-day are 
those to whom we feel ourselves drawn as by 
tender ties of kinship, which we love because 
of their deep love for our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
of whom we cannot believe otherwise than 
that they are such as those whom in the olden 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHCRLli. 23 

days the Apostle greeted as " beloved of God, 
called to be saints." And we will not take 
all the grace out of this confession by repre- 
senting them as "lights shining in a dark 
place" — as saints in spite of their doctrinal 
and devotional system, but will as freely con- 
fess it to be the aim of that system to produce 
just such fruits. If oftentimes it fails — often- 
times, alas ! we fail also. 

II. I honour the Roman Catholic Church 
for her bright example of missionary activity. 

A spirit of missionary activity we find in 
the Roman Church in the earliest times. 
Founded we know not by whom, and evi- 
dently unvisited by any Apostle up to the 
time of the writing of this epistle, St. Paul 
was able to thank God respecting it that its 
faith had gone out throughout the whole 
world. The beloved Priscilla and Aquila, 
who at Corinth and at Ephesus were the 
Apostle's most faithful fellow-labourers, were 
before that members of the Christian commu- 
nity that was at Rome. And that missionary 
spirit has lived, and of its life has largely 
come the greatness of the Roman Church 
to-day. When, nearly thirteen hundred years 
ago, Saxon heathenism had overrun our 
motherland, England, and the old British 



24 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Churchy driven back into the mountain fast- 
nesses of Wales, was afraid or unwilling to 
attempt the conversion of their heathen con- 
querors, it was a Bishop of Rome who sent 
out missionaries to win these heathen for 
Christ. We live in an age in which the mis- 
sionary spirit has infected almost all bodies 
of Christians; but before we Protestants had 
sent forth our men to bear the Gospel among 
the heathen, the missionaries of the Roman 
Church had gone forth in great companies, 
counting no toil too great, and no sufferings 
too hard to bear, braving death and meet- 
ing death in the true spirit of Christian 
martyrs. All honour to their memory. God 
forbid that any conviction I may have as 
to their error should rob me of my pro- 
found respect for their Christlike devotion. 
The successors of these men stand in their 
places, carrying on their work, making their 
faith known throughout the whole world, and 
I thank God for it. Yes, in spite of all the 
differences in doctrine and discipline which 
divide us, — breaches so wide that I fear they 
will never be bridged over till the great day 
comes, — I thank God that they have gone 
into the places which we have not reached, 
and have influenced those on whom we have 
no hold; and that through their ministries 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 25 

the Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours, 
is having in some measure an Epiphany 
among the Gentiles. May God grant us not 
only to hold fast our faith in its purity, but 
to propagate it with their earnest and self- 
denying zeal. 

III. Xor again shall the number and n 
nitude of our diversities blind me to the 
truths we hold in common. 

It is gratifying to note how, in the mid.^t 
of the heated conflicts of the Reformation 

our Reformers, in drawing up their 

th, overstepped the log 

order, and placed first among the Thirty- 
nine Articles those which we hold in agl 
ment with the great Church of Rome. I 
ically, it comes first in order to define the Rule 
of Faith, but upon that definition we parted. 
On the doctrines of the Trinity and the Atone- 
ment we were agreed ; and, first of all, these 
were stated. Whatever may have been the hu- 
man motives which determined this anv. 
ment, doubtless the Holy Spirit brought 
about the matter ; and I shall look upon it 
as indicating my Church's will that as far as 
hall be at one with all Chris- 
tians, putting in the forefront our agreements 
rather than our differences, even if some- 



26 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

times we seem thereby to peril logical con- 
sistency. 

And how vast these agreements are, even 
with us who are so far divided ! The Trinity 
and the Atonement — why, these are the very 
head and heart of all Christian theology ! 
And on these truths we clasp hands. We wor- 
ship the same God ; we own the same Mas- 
ter \ we trust in the same sacrifice. Nor do 
our agreements stop here. Alike we await a 
second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; 
alike we hope for heaven, alike we seek to 
avoid hell. We hold and proclaim, essentially, 
the same moral duties, condemning the same 
sins, inciting to the same virtues. And who 
shall blame one if, beholding these agree- 
ments, he shall so far overlook the differences 
as to speak for the other a hearty word of 
praise? Man may blame, but God is not 
like man ; and He who knows the mind of 
man with all its infirmities, doubtless makes 
allowance for all our diversities of judgment 
as to His truth, and may, for all we know, 
be working His own will through these di- 
versities. We will trust that He accepts all 
those whose hearts beat true to Him, and our 
highest hope shall be that we may be among 
their number. 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 27 

IV. And even in respect to these diversi- 
ties a word of peace and charity may be 
spoken. 

There are some diversities among Chris- 
tians which might be suffered to die out in 
silence, as unimportant and unprofitable dif- 
ferences. Other diversities there are in mat- 
ters of doctrine which could not conscien- 
tiously be passed over in silence, but which 
do not necessitate distinct Church organiza- 
tions. These differences are held, I think, 
less bitterly when they are allowed to grow 
up side by side in the Church, as so-called 
Calvinists and Arminians dwell together in 
our own Church in peace; and as Domini- 
cans and Franciscans, holding conflicting 
opinions, dwelt together in the Church of 
Rome. It is cause of great regret if, for such 
differences, we sacrifice the unity of Church 
organization. 

But there are diversities also of a more 
radical sort, which affect our whole concep- 
tion of Church organization and authority, 
which touch also the rule of faith. These 
are, in their nature, such as compel separation. 
And of this sort are some of the diversities 
which sever us from the Church of Rome. 
What shall we say of these ? 

Well, while we hold them firmly, we need 



28 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

not hold them bitterly. And we ought, as 
in conscience bound, always to state them 
fairly. The tricks and quibbles which men 
may excuse at the bar or on the hustings, 
should have no place in the pulpit, and 
should find no approval in our hearts. We 
should put the best construction, rather than 
the worst, upon the position of those who 
differ from us. If, sometimes, we may err 
thereby, we will trust that in the treasury of 
God's forgiveness there is pardon for errors 
which are born of charity. 

Now, in my Protestantism there is not only 
a protest against these errors of the Church 
of Rome, but a vigorous protest also against 
those who assail them unfairly and unchari- 
tably. Denying, as our Church does, the su- 
premacy and infallibility of the Bishop of 
Rome, I protest against those representations 
which make the present supremacy to be the 
outcome of a tyrannical usurpation, and the 
asserted infallibility to be a conscious fiction 
invented in these latter days. The local and 
temporal position of the Bishop of Rome in 
the world's great capital, made him greater 
in influence than other Bishops. He needed 
not much to grasp at authority ; it was thrust 
upon him, and thrust upon him the more 
readily because, in the earlier ages of the 



THE ROMAN CA THOLIC CHURCH. 29 

Church, he deserved it by using it well. 
The whole course of history seemingly con- 
spired to bring power into his hands, and 
laid the foundation for a doctrine of his 
supremacy. And the Roman doctrine of 
infallibility is not the absurd claim of the 
Pope's freedom from all error of judgment 
which some people understand it to be, 
is it a new invention, but a doctrine which 
was in process of growth through centuries. 
And while the claim of infallibility cannot 
bear the strict test of historical criticism, 
history attributes to the Popes of the first ten 
centuries a record of orthodoxy surpassed by 
no other line of Bishops. 

I protest also against the statement that 
the Roman Church borrowed from Mo- 
hammedanism the doctrine of the immaculate 
conception, and claim for it a nobler origin 
in that reverence for the Virgin Mother of 
our Lord which grew out of love for the 
Lord Mim>elf. Nay, that and other doc- 
trines of the Roman Church sprang not from 
the base origin to which some would attribute 
them. They have roots deep down in our 
human nature, and in the better part of it ; 
and while I cannot accept them, as bearing 
no sufficient credentials of Divine origin, I 



30 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

respect the faith of those who hold them, and 
leave their case with God. 

In spite of our diversities, we may feel 
thankful that this great body of Christians, 
outnumbering all our Protestant bodies com- 
bined, and furnishing the most perfect ex- 
ample of effective organization, still lives and 
prospers. We may pray that God may bless 
them, leading us all more into* His light, for- 
giving our errors, and drawing us more 
closely together and to Him in the unity of 
His one great family. 

In September of 1881, I stood upon the 
great lantern tower of York Minster. Be- 
neath me was the noblest of England's grand 
Cathedrals. On every side stretched out for 
miles a most beautiful landscape. But some- 
thing impressed me more that day than the 
grandeur of the Cathedral or the beauty of 
the landscape. As I gazed, delighted, on 
the scene around me, the great bell of the 
Minster tolled in deep and solemn bass. 
Every minute through the long hour came 
again the mournful tolling of the Minster 
bell. I asked its meaning, and found that 
the parish priest of St. Wilfred's Roman 
Catholic Church was dead, and the great 
Minster bell was tolling for his funeral. 
Across my mind there flashed the memory 



mm 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 81 

of the bloody reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, 
when Protestants and Romanists thought no 
persecutions too cruel to visit upon each other \ 
and I thanked God that we have fallen upon 
kindlier times, when men are more quick to 
see each other's good, and more ready to ac- 
knowledge it. And as I gazed upon the min- 
gled throng of Protestants and Roman Cath- 
olics gathered to honour the memory of that 
dead priest, and in response to the mourn- 
ful funeral chant, heard the great bell send 
down from the lofty Cathedral tower its note 
of sympathy, I realized more deeply than 
ever before the essential brotherhood of those 
Christians who seem to be severed beyond 
hope of earthly reunion. 

11 One port, methought, alike they sought. 
One purpose hold, where'er they fare ; 
O bounding breeze, O rushing seas ! 
At last, at last, unite them there !" 



No. III. 
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

Isaiah 4.Q, 23. 

"And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their 
queens thy nursing mothers." 

WHEN, in the course of these sermons 
on the various branches of the Church 
of Christ, I come to speak of the Church 
of England, the subject is one which de- 
mands our especial regard. From the bosom 
of the Church of England our own Church 
drew her mother's milk. From the Church 
of England we derived our Episcopacy, our 
Articles of faith, our Liturgy. In faith we 
depart from her not at all ; in worship and 
government only so far as the differences in 
civil government necessitate. Your fathers 
worshipped God over a hundred years ago 
in the very words of the present English 
Prayer Book. The walls of old Blandford 
Church, now silently standing guard over 
our dead, once echoed with the same words 

(32) 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 33 

of praise and prayer that rang through every 
cathedral of England to-day. Our first 
Bishop of Virginia, James Madison, received 
his consecration ninety-three years ago, at 
the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Our clergy to-day, when for any purpose 
they cross the seas, find a hearty welcome to 
the pulpits of the Church of England. 
Among the many ties which bind this strong 
young nation to her old motherland (and 
God grant these ties may never be fewer or 
weaker) there is none stronger, and none 
tenderer, than that furnished in the brotherly 
intercommunion of our Protestant Episco- 
pal Church and the Church of England. 

And, again, even to those who are not 
now of our own communion, the subject of 
the Church of England may be one of inter- 
est. She is in a way the mother-Church of 
those bodies of which I am hereafter to speak 
in this course of sermons. They wandered 
away from her indeed, as children some- 
times do, not liking the old mother's ways; 
finding fault with her faith, disregarding her 
counsels, and rejecting her customs; esteem- 
ing themselves possessors of a wisdom which 
had never entered into her dear old head ; 
but it is . not well that they should forget 
what place she filled in the line of their 



34 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

spiritual ancestors. Before these other vigour- 
ous Churches of to-day came to their birth, 
our forefathers received their spiritual sus- 
tenance at her hands. From the time when 
she took them into her arms as little babes 
at the baptismal font, until with prayer she 
laid them tenderly in the grave, she watched 
over them with a constant care which has 
earned for her a worthy name among mothers. 
And for this she deserves to be well thought 
of by us all. 

To the people of this country, whose laws 
are largely framed upon the laws of England, 
and whose institutions are modelled upon 
those of the mother-country, the history and 
institutions of England furnish a study of 
great interest. But the oldest and grandest 
of the English institutions which have re- 
mained is that of the English Church. 
Long before "the flag that's braved a thou- 
sand years the battle of the breeze" was 
first unfurled over a united England, a 
united Church of Christ in England, under 
the primacy of the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, held beneficent sway over the English 
people. From the Church of England 
sprang the idea of a kingdom of England. 
From her synods came the idea of the na- 
tion's parliaments, and the canons enacted 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 35 

in these synods led the way to a national 
system of laws. So that whatever of histori- 
cal interest attaches to the nation of Eng- 
land, attaches pre-eminently to the Church 
of England. 

Of the beginnings of her history we can- 
not speak with definiteness. The introduc- 
tion of Christianity into England is an event 
about which we know no more than we do 
of its introduction into Rome. Whether, as 
ancient writers have - . the 

el was first preached by St. Paul him- 
self, or whether Joseph of Arimathea ; 
whether in the movements of the Roman 
army Christian soldier- Qt to Britain, 

and brought their faith with them : whether 
first ordained missionary or converted lay- 
man brought to Britain the religion of Christ, 
we cannot say. And this mist of uncertain- 
ty does not overhang alone the origin of the 
Church of England. But from the in- 
conflicting traditions we gather it as certain 
that the Church of Christ had obtained a 
firm foothold in Britain before the end of 
the third century after our Lord's death. 
There the Divine seed of truth was planted, 
there it grew, the blood of martyrs watering 
it in the time of the Diocletian persecution. 
There Churches sprang up after the Apos- 



36 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

tolic pattern, with their liturgies, their holy 
seasons, their threefold ministry. British 
Bishops were present at the Councils of Aries 
in A.D. 314, of Sardica in 347, and of Ari- 
minum in 360. So long as Britain remained 
a part of the Roman Empire, the British 
Church continued to grow under its favour- 
ing protection. But the recall of the Roman 
troops left the Britons exposed to the attacks 
of the fierce Picts of Scotland. From these 
attacks they sought refuge in an alliance 
with the heathen Saxons. Vain refuge! — 
for when these Saxons had helped the Bri- 
tons by driving away the Picts, they helped 
themselves to the territory of the Britons, 
driving them back into the mountain region 
of Wales. Wherever these Saxons went 
they uprooted the Christian Church; and 
perhaps it is not strange that the conquered 
Britons made no effort to proclaim the Gos- 
pel to their Saxon conquerors. 

In 597 came the Roman missionaries under 
Augustine, and began their labours in the 
Saxon kingdom of Kent. With them they 
brought certain customs of the Roman 
Church, different from those held by the 
British Church. About these customs arose 
contentions, which continued for many years, 
but finally ended in the reception of the 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 37 

Roman customs, and the union of the rival 
branches in the one Church of England. 
Under Theodore of Tarsus, the seventh 
Archbishop of Canterbury, all England was 
divided into dioceses, most of which con- 
tinue unto this day. 

From this time forward to the time of the 
Reformation, the Bishop of Rome was con- 
ceded a large authority in the direction of 
English ecclesiastical affairs. At first it seems 
to have been the authority of a wise adviser, 
whose advice men sought of their own ac- 
cord. By and by, he claimed some of 
those prerogatives of an absolute ruler which 
he now exercises in the Roman Catholic 
Church. Sometimes these claims found ac- 
knowledgment, quite as often they were de- 
nied. The history of the English Church 
is full of the records of conflicts with the 
papal power. The overthrow of the papal 
jurisdiction in England, under Henry VIII., 
was but the final renunciation of that which 
had been often disputed before. And the 
doctrinal reformation effected during the 
sixteenth century was but the carrying out of 
the good work begun by John Wycliffe in 
the fourteenth. 

We are sometimes told, with all gravity, 
that the Church of England was founded by 
4 



88 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

King Henry VIII., and English Church his- 
torians are quoted in proof of the fact. A 
strange statement, indeed ! We confess that 
Henry's reign began a new epoch in her his- 
tory, in the final assertion of her indepen- 
dence of Rome, and in the beginning of 
her doctrinal reform. But it was a strange 
sort of beginning, which preserved intact 
the old organization. As well might we call 
every great epoch in a Church's or a nation's 
history the beginning of a new Church or 
nation, as to say that the Church of England 
began with Henry VIII. God forbid that 
we should revere him as the founder of the 
Church of England ! 

But we do not find it hard to believe that 
He who sometimes makes the wrath of man 
to praise Him, and who through the envy of 
Joseph's brethren wrought out the deliver- 
ance of His people Israel, should by His 
strange providence have overruled the bad 
passions of the English king to the lasting 
good of the English Church. Did He not 
through the bitter hatred of the Scribes and 
Pharisees suffer His Son to be brought to 
that death in which was the world's salvation? 
Nay, we will no more give honour to Henry 
VIII. for the founding of the Church of Eng- 
land, than we will revere the Scribes and 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 89 

Pharisees as the authors of the world's great 
salvation ! But both, in the one case and in 
the other, we will reverently give thanks to 
God, for that He, in His own wise way, has 
brought good out of evil. 

The history of the Church of England has 
had other important epochs, but we will 
not pursue the thread of her history beyond 
the sixteenth century. That century wit- 
nessed her final renunciation of the Pope's 
authority, and of customs and doctrines 
which had grown up during the middle-ages. 
Then she returned to the purer faith and 
simpler usages of the undivided primitive 
Church. Then she adopted the confession 

rith which she retains to-day. Then she 
translated her services into the tongue under- 
stood by all the people, and gave her people 
the Prayer Book, almost as we have it now. 
II. Having thus spoken at some length of 
the history of the Chur gland, let me 

ik more briefly as to her doctrinal position. 

.. She stands upon common ground with 
all Protestant churches in asserting the suffi- 
ciency and supremacy of Cod's Word. She 
proclaims that " Holy Scripture containeth 
all things necessary to salvation; so that 
whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be 
proved thereby, is not to be required of any 



40 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

man that it should be believed as an article 
of the Faith, or be thought requisite or neces- 
sary to salvation/ ' She will put no tradi- 
tions, no customs, no decrees of General 
Councils, upon the same level of authority 
with this Bible which she reveres as the in- 
spired Word of God, and will accept only 
such formularies of faith as commend them- 
selves by this Divine touchstone. 

2d. She stands upon common ground 
with four-fifths of all professing Christians in 
holding fast to the threefold ministry of 
bishops, priests, or presbyters, and deacons. 
Yet, while she does this, and is most careful 
to maintain the regular succession of her 
ministers, showing by that carefulness her 
conviction that Apostolic order, as well as 
Apostolic faith, is to be most highly prized, 
she does not leave on record in any of her 
formularies one word of harsh judgment on 
the case of those who, through stress of ad- 
verse circumstances, or through conscientious 
convictions, have departed from that order. 

3d. And chiefly, she exalts the Lord Jesus 
Christ as the Divine Son of God, as the per- 
fect and sufficient Saviour of man, and the 
One Mediator between God and men. Others 
may have meant well when they interposed 
holy saints as mediators between the sinner 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 41 

and the Saviour, as the Pharisees meant well 
when they put their traditions as a protecting 
hedge about the law; but the Lord had 
cause to charge them with having made the 
law of God of none effect by their traditions. 
And so the Church of England, knowing 
that even right-meaning men may make mis- 
takes, fearing lest the glory of the One Medi- 
ator and His one sacrifice may be dimmed, 
leaves out from her worship all prayers for 
saintly intercessions, and lifts Him up as the 
One through whom alone all men must draw 
near to God ; One so forgiving and so tender 
that no penitent sinner need fear to approach 
Him directly. Among those branches of 
the Church of Christ which are giving to 
their Lord and Saviour an Epiphany among 
the Gentiles, there is none which flashes forth 
a brighter or a steadier light than our dear 
mother Church of England. 

III. Let me now, before closing, say some- 
thing of the ciraanstances and the present work 
of the Church of England. We are looking 
about, in this course of sermons, for causes 
of thankfulness in the position and work of 
the different branches of Christ's Church. 

The first thought about the Church of Eng- 
land which comes in many people's minds is 
one in which they find cause of regret, the 



42 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

thought of the union between Church and 
State. But the nature of that union is very 
much misunderstood ; its evils commonly ex- 
aggerated, and its good lost sight of. Many 
think of the English Church .as a creature of 
the State, which was legislated into existence, 
and can be legislated out of it. They think 
of its revenues as for the most part derived 
from the State. All this is wrong. Parlia- 
ment must sanction, but it cannot introduce, 
any alterations in the Church's doctrine, dis- 
cipline, or worship. The Queen may nomi- 
nate, but she cannot elect or consecrate, a 
Bishop. Not one penny does the Church of 
England, as a whole, derive directly from 
the State. The State simply secures to her 
the endowments and privileges which have 
been bequeathed by the piety of past ages. 
The supervision which the State exercises 
over her faith and worship is like that which 
she exercises over the trust deeds to the prop- 
erty of dissenting bodies, is akin to that which 
a civil court exercises over the carrying out 
of the provisions of a will. We must remem- 
ber that while it would be impolitic and 
wrong in this new land to legislate a union 
between Church and State, the case is far 
different when the State is called upon to 
secure to the Church temporal privileges and 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 43 

inheritances which have been accruing for 
many centuries. And even while we would 
deprecate any such union in this country, we 
may find ourselves able to excuse it in Eng- 
land. 

Doubtless such a union has its attendant 
evils. Our times of prosperity are always, I 
think, more fruitful in temptations than our 
seasons of adversity. The Church in the 
martyr ages, when those only dared to pro- 
fess the faith who were sincere, was purer and 
stronger than she is likely to be when her 
worldly prosperity may tempt men to make 
gain by their profession. 

But with the evils are counterbalancing 
advantages. Our voluntary system has its 
weak points as well as the English establish- 
ment. With us the tendency is to limit our 
pastoral labours to our especial congregations, 
and to leave those without to murmur, ' l no 
man careth for my soul." With us the 
wealthy congregation which needs but little 
pastoral visitation may have the full services 
of two or more ministers; while the poor 
congregation like this, which needs much 
more of pastoral visitation, can afford but 
half the services of one poor minister. In 
the Church of England all the land is divided 
into parishes, and the minister is regarded as 



44 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

* 

pastor of all the souls within his parish. 
Many of these may be dissenters, and reject 
his services, and as a gentleman he will not 
thrust himself where he is not wanted, but to 
all who will receive him he is ready to go, 
and he holds that there rests upon him the 
responsibility of caring for all within his 
parish. 

We may talk about the evils of a union of 
Church and State, but it is a good thing that 
a great State should make acknowledgment 
of, and provision for, the religious needs of 
its people; .that places of worship should be 
placed within the reach of all ; that from the 
king in his palace to the peasant in his thatched 
cottage, each soul should be under some pas- 
toral care ; that the kingdoms of this world 
should have a care for the kingdoms of our 
God and of His Christ. It is with joy and 
thanksgiving, as for a blessing, that the in- 
spired prophet gives forth God's promise of 
the time when His Church should break forth 
among the Gentiles, when kings should be 
its nursing fathers and their queens its nurs- 
ing mothers ; a promise which we will ven- 
ture to think finds part of its fulfillment in 
the case of the Church of England. 

And no Church is better repaying the State 
for whatever of privilege and protection she 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 45 

receives from it than is the Church of Eng- 
land. The old persecuting spirit, which once 
was common to all Churches powerful enough 
to persecute, has died out. The lethargy 
and worldliness which were the Church of 
England's curse in the last century, has 
passed away, and no Church is now furnish- 
ing a brighter example of consecrated zeal 
than she is. Never have I seen more rever- 
ent congregations of worshippers than in her 
churches. Never have I heard the Gospel 
more powerfully preached than it is preached 
in her pulpits. Nowhere can we see more 
faithful pastoral work than her ministers are 
doing in crowded cities and in scattered ham- 
lets. Nowhere is the faithful work of lay 
helpers more profitably utilized. And withal 
the work of Christ committed to her is mak- 
ing progress, not by fits and starts, but steadily 
and grandly; as the majestic inflow of a tide, 
which God grant may never recede. 

He who views in its true light the present 
position and work of the Church of England 
cannot keep back the heartfelt prayer, " God 
bless her." And we, of this daughter Church 
in America, can ask of God no better gift 
than a double portion of the spirit which His 
grace has poured upon the Church of Eng- 
land. 



No. IV. 
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 

Ephesians 6, 24. 

Grace be with ail them that love our Lord Jesus Christ 
in sincerity. Amen. v 

THE subject of my discourse to-night is 
that of the Presbyterian Churches. I 
say Churches, rather than Church, because 
there are a number of religious bodies, with 
quite distinct organizations, who unite in 
holding to Presbyterian Church polity and 
Calvinistic doctrine. What I may say at 
this time will apply generally to all these 
bodies. They are so far agreed that forty- 
nine of these distinct organizations were 
represented in the General Council of the 
Presbyterian Alliance, held in Philadelphia, 
in the year 1880, giving to each other the 
right hand of fellowship, and feeling their 
way toward a yet closer union. They num- 
ber a large part of ' ' all who profess and call 
themselves Christians. ' ■ It is their claim, 

(46) 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 47 

and I will not dispute it, that thirty millions 
of professing Christians are Presbyterians. 
And their strength is not to be estimated by 
count of numbers. Numbering less than 
one-tenth of all Christians, they wield a 
more than proportionate influence. They 
are strongest in most enlightened lands, and 
among the more intelligent classes of society. 
It must be left for me later on in my sermon 
to speak of the noble work these Churches 
are doing; but I may say here, that they con- 
tain noble men and women, who are of the 
best and worthiest of our redeemed humanity; 
who are strong in faith and rich in conse- 
crated gifts, in praising whom we do honour 
to ourselves as well as to them. If you blot 
out their names from the roll of the great 
Church Catholic, you will do much to dim 
the brightness of her record. 

How come they to be so divided ? Well, 
most of these divisions are determined by 
national boundaries. Each nationality, and 
in most cases each of the greater divisions 
of any great nation, has its separate Church 
organization. So the Presbyterian Churches 
of Scotland, of Ireland, of England, of 
Canada, and of the United States, are dis- 
tinct one from the other. The very form of 
Presbyterian Church polity, which admits of 



48 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 

no higher order in the ministry than that of 
presbyters, precludes any organic world-wide 
union of Presbyterians. But also there are 
divisions of Presbyterians within the same 
land, sometimes growing out of deep-rooted 
political differences, such as those which 
first estranged the Northern and Southern 
Churches here; sometimes growing out of 
minor differences in matters of Church 
government and discipline; and sometimes 
arising out of more or less serious diversities 
in doctrine. The number of these bodies 
would seem to indicate an alarming diversity 
among them, and to give point to the sneers at 
our Protestant divisions; and it is a cheering 
sight to those who love Christian unity to 
see that forty-nine Presbyterian organizations 
could join hand in hand in one great Alli- 
ance, without laxity or compromise; greet- 
ing each other as brethren holding substan- 
tially one faith and one polity. 

And what shall I say of the history of the 
Presbyterians? The time is within the 
memory of some of you when some of their 
divisions took place. You have seen the 
separation and reunion of the Old and New 
Schools in this country; you remember how, 
in 1843, tne Free Church of Scotland came 
out from the old State Kirk. But when were 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 49 

the beginnings of Presbyterianism? That is 

not an easy question to answer to every- 
body's satisfaction. Some (hen- are who 
find its roots far back in the patriarchal i 
who find presbytery full grown when God 

said to Moses at Horeb: "Go, call the 
ciders of Israel together;" who trace it 
down through all the Old Testament history; 
who find in it the polity of the synagogues; 
and assert it to have been the polity of the 
Apostolic Church; claiming that in the third 
century the dark tyranny of Episcopacy 
overshadowed it, and the light of Presby- 
terianism dwindled to a spark, which flickered 
more brightly now and then, as in the case 
of the Culdees and Waldenses; and at length 
by the breath of the Holy Spirit was fanned 
into a bright and lasting blaze in the glori- 
ous Reformation age. A glorious picture 
truly! And if I could so read the history of 
Presbyterianism, I would take off this sur- 
plice, vacate this pulpit, and become a Pres- 
byterian myself, if they would take me in. 
A ; nd yet I can take a view of Presbyterian 
history, from my Episcopal standpoint, 
which gives credit and honour to them. 
Disbelieving the claim that Presbyterianism 
was the Apostolic form of Church govern- 
ment \ and not seeing what the Old Testament 



50 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 

eldership of the patriarchal and Mosaic times, 
to which a man was admitted by seniority of 
birth, and hereditary descent, has to do with 
a Christian presbyterate which takes no 
count of seniority or of family; I can 
yet concede to them a noble origin and an 
honourable history. Were then the ancient 
Culdees Presbyterians? So it has been 
claimed, but Dr. Alexander Mitchell, one of 
the most eminent Presbyterian historians of 
the present day, tells us that the latest his- 
torical investigations do not warrant that 
claim. * And as to the heroic Waldenses, 
who, for a long time before the Reformation 
endeavoured to hold fast amid persecutions 
to a purer faith, it is difficult to say what 
they were in the old times. Presbyterians, 
indeed, they are, I believe, to-day; but in 
the old times Baptists, Presbyterians, and 
Episcopalians alike claim them. But we 
leave debatable speculations, and stand on 
a firm historical footing of well-attested facts, 
when we come to the Reformation age. 
There is no doubt as to the existence of Pxes- 
byterianism then. In Germany, in Switzer- 
land, in France, in Scotland, in almost every 
country except England, we find the Re- 
formed Churches organizing under the Pres- 

* Article " Culdees," Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 51 

byterian form of polity. The Presbyterians 
need not be ashamed to confess themselves 
the children of the Reformation age; for, 
with all its turmoils and reactions, and ad- 
mixtures of dross with its gold, there has 
been no period in the history of the past 
1800 years on which we can look back with 
greater pride and thankfulness. Nor need 
they feel ashamed of the history they have 
carved out for themselves between that time 
and this. They have done a noble work. 
They have given noble examples of suffering. 
The ruthless hand of persecution was laid 
upon them, and they died by thousands, yea, 
by hundreds of thousands, as Chrises true 
martyrs. In France, in Belgium, in Holland, 
where persecution well nigh exterminated 
them, they shewed Christian men how to die 
bravely. In Scotland they built up a nation 
of strong, God-fearing men, diligent in good 
works; a people of whom we may say that, 
take them all in all, there is no sturdier, 
abler, nobler race of men on earth. They 
have made their Edinburgh a modern Athens 
for learning, and their Glasgow a marvel in 
the world of trade. Their influence, in 
education, in commerce, in morals, and in 
religion, has gone abroad throughout the 
world. From the old Scottish stock worthy 



52 THE PRESBIH^ERIAN CHURCHES. 

scions have taken root and borne fruit in 
this land. Here they have built their col- 
leges and seminaries, taking a foremost place 
in the encouragement of sound learning. 
None surpass them in educational zeal, and 
in the care they manifest to make learning 
the handmaid of religion. They have dotted 
the globe with missionary stations, and Pres- 
byterianism can report 5 74 ordained mission- 
aries labouring in foreign fields. Neither of 
their origin in the Reformation age, nor of 
their history since, need the Presbyterians 
be ashamed. And we, reading that history, 
can afford, in spite of our differences in 
doctrine and discipline, to thank God for 
what He has done through them, and to con- 
fess that He is with them of a truth. 

If I could say of the Roman Catholics, 
that our Church held much in common with 
them, still more can I say that of the Pres- 
byterians. Besides the doctrine of the Trin- 
ity, and that of the sacrificial death of 
Christ, we are at one with them in teaching 
that the Scriptures are the sole Divine Rule 
of Faith ; and we teach the same doctrines 
of original sin and of justification. The 
truths on which we agree are the greatest 
in the realm of Christian theology. And it 
has seemed a wonder to me that men could 



THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUR CUES. 53 

ever think of making more of our lesser dif- 
ferences than of these greater agreements; 
and that in the matter of these differences 
we should take so little pains to find chari- 
table reasons for them. 

Coming now to the matter of these differ- 
ences, let us first look at those differences in 
Church government which give to Presby- 
terianism its name. What is Presbyterian- 
ism as a Church polity? 

It is the claim of Presbyterians that the 
Christian ministry consists of two kinds of 
elders, and an order of deacons. One class 
of elders they call teaching elders. To this 
class is committed the pastorate of congre- 
gations, with its work of preaching the Gos- 
pel. The other class, called ruling elders, 
form, with the minister, the council or session 
of the congregation to which they belong. 
They have an equal right to rule with the 
minister, but not to teach. Though what 
we would call laymen, being not separated 
from worldly business, they are set apart by 
solemn ordination to their office, usually for 
life. They are the representatives of the 
people in all the courts of the Church. 
The office of the deacon is like to that of 
our vestryman, but he is set apart to it by 
prayer and imposition of hands. These are 
5 



64 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 

the orders of ministry recognized among 
Presbyterians. For these they claim Scrip- 
tural sanction. They deny that there is any 
order of Bishops who are the overseers of 
the teaching elders, and their superiors in 
authority; and claim that this order of 
Bishops, which gives to our branch of the 
Church its distinctive name, was an inven- 
tion of the third century. Such is, I think, 
in brief, a fair statement of the Presbyterian 
system of Church polity. 

Of course, as a minister of this Church, I 
hold it to be destitute of sufficient proof, 
either from Scripture or Church history. 
But my object here is not a controversial 
one. After all, there are some things in 
which we agree, even in the matter of Church 
polity. One is, that in the Church of Christ 
there is a Divinely appointed ministry as dis- 
tinct from the body of lay Christians ; a min- 
istry which, while it may be elected by the 
people, receives its commission and authority 
from God. Another is, that one of the orders 
of this ministry is an order of preaching and 
ruling presbyters. And when we come to 
the disputed matter of the higher episcopal 
office, we must not think hardly of our Pres- 
byterian brethren as those who willingly and 
without cause rebelled against lawful authority. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 55 

Presbyterianism came to its birth in serious 
times, when matters more important even 
than Church polity were occupying the Re- 
formers' minds and hearts. The Bishops 
almost everywhere on the Continent were 
against them, and they were compelled either 
to renounce their doctrinal reforms, or to 
refuse submission to their Bishops. In every 
case they lost the Episcopacy before they 
denied its lawfulness. Their conflict was first 
with the men, then with the office. Wher- 
ever the Bishops joined in the work of Refor- 
mation, there the Episcopacy stood, and there 
it stands to-day, as in England. We may per- 
haps find fault with the Continental Reform- 
ers for not taking steps afterwards to supply 
the lack of this highest order in the ministry ; 
but we must do them justice in acknowledg- 
ing that grave necessities compelled them for 
awhile to lose it. When the time came in 
which they might have made good their loss, 
they had persuaded themselves that they had 
no need of Bishops. And we must credit 
them with conscientiousness in their convic- 
tions now, even while we hold them in error 
as to these convictions. 

Let us turn now briefly to consider the 
form of doctrine which is held in common 
by the great mass of Presbyterian Churches. 



56 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 

It is the form of doctrine commonly known 
as Calvinism, so named after the great Re- 
former, John Calvin, its most illustrious ex- 
ponent. Many have denounced Calvinism 
as a stern, pitiless, iron creed; and it cer- 
tainly is a strong iron-ribbed form of faith. 
Whatever may be its faults, weakness and 
hesitancy are not among them. Upon a large 
foundation of doctrines held in common by 
most Protestants, Calvinism builds up five 
points of doctrine which stand sharply op- 
posed to the Arminian doctrine held by the 
Methodists. These are the doctrines of par- 
ticular predestination, limited atonement, 
natural inability, irresistible grace, and the 
perseverance of saints. They are doctrines 
which have been held in our own Church ; 
and once it was attempted to add a statement 
of them, in uncompromising terms, to our 
Thirty-nine Articles. Even those who could 
accept those doctrines themselves, may rejoice 
that they were not added to our Articles; 
but that on matters of which so much lies 
beyond our ken, we should not be compelled 
to dogmatize ; and that within our borders, 
if nowhere else, there should be a haven 
where one is not compelled to declare him- 
self either a Calvinist or an Arminian ; where 
ministers holding both these types of doc- 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. & 

trine can labour harmoniously side by side. 
Our Church, as such, has no grave quarrel 
with Calvinism, save to bear witness by a 
reverent silence that some of these points of 
doctrine are too high for our reach or solu- 
tion. 

Standing upon the broad platform of our 
Church, unable to accept the peculiar doc- 
trines of Calvinism, and yet unbound to 
oppose them, I protest against some of the 
bitter and sweeping charges that are often 
made against Calvinists. I hear it charged 
that they make God the author of sin, but I 
cannot join in that charge when I know that 
from every Presbyterian pulpit He is pro- 
claimed as a Being of infinite holiness and 
inflexible justice. I hear it charged that 
their predestinarian doctrine is equivalent to 
sheer fatalism, a doctrine which clogs the 
wheels of progress, as fatalism has done in 
all Mohammedan countries; and yet I can- 
not join in that charge when I find Presby- 
terians standing in the forefront of all pro- 
gressive movements. I hear it charged that 
Calvinism leads to Antinomianism, leaving 
men to trust that God's irresistible grace will 
force them to do that which their reason 
affirms as right, but their will refuses to at- 
tempt; but when I see how fruitful are these 



68 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 

Presbyterians in good works, gladly and will- 
ingly done, I cannot join in that charge. 
Nay, whatever charges against Calvinism 
may be plausible in theory, the practical 
evils are few indeed in comparison with these 
charges. 

And when we look beneath the peculiar 
doctrines of Calvinism to their underlying 
principles, we find in these the strength of 
the system. Calvinism exalts Divine grace 
and Divine sovereignty, humbling the crea- 
ture only that it may glorify the Creator. 
So, it is hoped, do we. We may think it 
goes too far ; that it attempts too great pre- 
cision in defining doctrines which are too 
high for us. So it may be. But in the name 
of all that is true and charitable, let us give 
credit where credit is due. Let us confess 
that it is a system which has done noble work, 
has borne abundant fruits, has nurtured in 
its children a type of heroic Christian charac- 
ter — a type which the world has needed, and 
will ever need. 

And so, while we desire for Presbyterians 
that sometime they may stand upon our 
broader platform, and be organized under 
our Apostolic polity, we may acknowledge 
them as Christian brethren whom God has 
manifestly blessed, bidding them God-speed 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 59 

in their great work, reaching out to them 
the friendly hand of a brother, and counting 
ourselves honoured if* they shall take it in a 
brother's grasp. 



No. V. 
THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 

/ Corinthians i, 2-3. 

To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be 
saints, with all that in every place call on the Name 
of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: 
Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our 
Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 

n^HE topic before us to-night, that of the 
X Baptist Churches, is one of great local 
interest. For though the Baptists form a 
very small portion of the whole number of 
Christians in the world, they form a very 
large number of the Christians of this coun- 
try. According to the statistics published 
in the Baptist Year Book, there are in the 
world nearly three million members of Bap- 
tist Churches. Of these about 2,400,000, or 
four-fifths, are in the \ United States. And 
of these 1,775,000 are in the Southern States. 
Outside of the United States, the only coun- 
try in which Baptists are largely represented 
is England, which numbers 210,787, or 699 
(6o) 



THE BAPTIST CHURCHES, 61 

more members than are reported by the Bap- 
tist Churches of Virginia. Besides England 
and the United States, all the rest of the 
world numbers 201,617 Baptists, or 8471 
less than those, of Virginia. So that to us 
in this State, which numbers almost as many 
Baptists as England, and which, leaving out 
England, numbers more than the five conti- 
nents of Europe, Asia, Africa, South Ameri- 
ca, and Australia, may be found a topic of 
peculiar interest in the Baptist Churches. 

The statistics just given are those of the 
regular or Calvinistic Baptists. Besides these 
there are other Christian bodies rejecting in- 
fant baptism, such as the Anti-Mission Bap- 
tists, Seventh-Day Baptists, Six Principle 
Baptists, Free-Will Baptists, and Disciples 
or Campbellites, numbering throughout the 
world perhaps one million members, of whom 
at least four-fifths are in the United States. 
Allowing that for every communicant there 
are four adherents to any Christian Church, 
we have, out of about 390,000,000 of Chris- 
tians in the world, about sixteen millions 
who reject infant baptism. 

There is not the same close doctrinal agree- 
ment between the different denominations of 
Baptists which we find between the Presby- 
terian Churches. The Disciples repudiate all 



62 THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 

human Confessions of Faith, and profess to 
be guided by the Bible alone. The Free- 
Will Baptists reject Calvinism. The Seventh- 
Day Baptists insist upon the observance of 
the Jewish Sabbath instead of the Lord's 
Day. But the great body of Baptists through- 
out the world, all I believe of those who are 
called Baptists without any other distinguish- 
ing name, are in doctrine Calvinists; and 
while there is no particular confession of 
faith held as binding upon all the Baptist 
Churches, most of them agree with the Phila- 
delphia Confession of 1742, which sets forth 
a moderate Calvinism. 

The Baptist Churches are congregational 
in their form of government. Each congre- 
gation forms a distinct Church, and has the 
sole control of its own affairs. Each mem- 
ber of the Church has equal right to speak 
and vote in the gatherings of the Church. 
The members of the Church select their own 
minister, and may, if they please, ordain 
him. They may draw up their discipline, 
and their own Confession of Faith, if they 
wish to do so. They recognize no order of 
ministry, as distinct from the lay members 
of the Church ; and in this are as distinct 
from Methodists and Presbyterians, as they 
are from Episcopalians. The admission of 



THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 63 

new members, and cases of discipline, are 
determined by a vote of the whole congre- 
gation. But their congregational indepen- 
dence is somewhat modified by the fact that 
they are gathered into voluntary associations, 
which associations require an agreement in 
faith and in leading matters of discipline. 
And while in theory they recognize no dif- 
ference of order between ministers and 
people, yet practically their ministers do 
form a distinct order, and in most cases 
enter the ministry as a profession for life. 

Postponing a further consideration of the 
peculiar features of the Baptist Churches, 
let me now say a few words about the history 
of the Baptists. 

It is the claim of the Baptists that their 
Churches are organized upon the New Tes- 
tament pattern, and that the Churches of the 
Apostolic age were Baptist Churches; but 
that in the second or third century the evil 
practice of infant baptism sprang up, and 
the rise of the Episcopacy destroyed the 
independence of the Churches. They claim 
that Baptist Churches to-day give a faithful 
reproduction of the organization, faith, and 
discipline of the Apostolic age. If that 
claim were true, then no history could boast 
a more glorious starting-point than theirs. 



G4 THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 

If that claim could be granted by us, then, 
doubtless, the best thing for us all to do 
would be to become Baptists. But while we 
do not think it true, let it be perfectly under- 
stood that we credit them with sincerity in 
their convictions. 

An attempt has been made to trace out a 
succession of Churches holding Baptist prin- 
ciples from the Apostolic age to the time of 
the Reformation. There has been no lack 
of skill displayed in this attempt, and some- 
times the historian has made a plausible 
argument. But it is the judgment of the 
most intelligent and fair-minded Baptists 
that the attempt to trace out such a succes- 
sion is a failure. In the first place, we have 
but little information respecting the doctrines 
and government of the sects through which 
the succession is attempted to be traced. 
And further, the little information we have 
is enough to assure us that on many import- 
ant points they differed widely from the 
Baptists. It is true that certain principles 
which the Baptists now emphasize are to be 
traced in some of these sects. The Donat- 
ists, for example, rebaptized converts who 
came to them from the Catholic Church \ 
but not upon the same grounds as those for 
which the Baptists would rebaptize us. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 65 

They also opposed all connection between 
Church and State, as the Baptists do; but 
they remained Episcopalians in Church 
government, and it does not appear that 
they rejected infant baptism. There were, 
indeed, among these sects some who did re- 
ject infant baptism; but they seem to have 
denied so much else of Christian doctrine, 
that if they were here to-day, our Baptist 
friends would no more claim fellowship with 
them than we would, 

I think it best, therefore, to accept instead 
of all this ingenious speculation, the state- 
ment of Dr, Osgood, an eminent Baptist 
divine, who, in his article on the Baptists, in 
the Schaff - Herzog Encyclopaedia, says: 
"The Baptists appeared first in Switzerland, 
about A.D. 1523. * * * They are 
found in the following years, 1525-30, with 
large Churches fully organized, in Southern 
Germany, Tyrol, and Middle Germany. * * 
After 1534, they were numerous in Northern 
Germany, Holland, Belgium, and the Wal- 
loon provinces. ' ' Taking this as a correct 
statement of facts, we see that if the Baptists 
were later in their birth than some have sup- 
posed, they manifested a remarkable zeal, 
and spread very rapidly. It is to be regret- 
ted that with many of them that zeal was 



66 THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 

mingled with much fanaticism and error; 
on account of which a sentence of wholesale 
condemnation has been pronounced upon 
all the Anabaptists of the Reformation age. 
When John of Leyden set up the Anabaptist 
kingdom in Munster, introduced polygamy, 
and gave reign to every excess of fanatical 
cruelty and sensual dissipation, he awakened 
throughout Europe a most bitter opposition 
to all Anabaptists. Thenceforward to all 
other Christians the name of Anabaptist be- 
came associated with every pestilent form of 
heresy. It was not fair to condemn the in- 
nocent with the guilty. For, surely, the 
Anabaptists of the Reformation age were not 
all fanatics, but some among them were like 
the Baptists around us, sober, reasonable, 
upright, and God-fearing men. But it is 
ever the nature of scum to come to the top, 
and be most noticed, as hideous deformity 
is more noticed than exquisite proportion; 
and so the fanatical excesses of some Ana- 
baptists called down upon the rest a reproach 
they did not deserve. And perhaps we may 
see the effect of that reproach in the fact 
that now the whole continent of Europe 
does not contain one-third as many Baptists 
as the State of Virginia. 

" During the reigns of Elizabeth and 



THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 67 

James I. a large number of Baptists fled 
from Holland and Germany to England. 
What influence they exerted in spreading 
their views is not known. We only learn of 
their presence by the persecutions they en- 
dured." It was especially in the latter part 
of the reign of Charles I. , and in the times of 
the Commonwealth, that their Churches 
multiplied rapidly. Their Churches in this 
period could boast of the illustrious names 
of John Milton and John Bunyan, names of 
which the whole world is proud. And from 
that day to this, though the Baptists of Eng- 
land have not been very mighty in numbers, 
they have been able to glory in a succession 
of worthy names, and a comparative freedom 
from fanatical error; while the world owes 
a debt of gratitude to the work of that com- 
munion which has given us such men as the 
Missionary Carey, John Foster, Robert Hall, 
and Charles H. Spurgeon. 

But it is this great land that has witnessed 
the most remarkable growth of the Baptist 
Churches. After Roger Williams was ban- 
ished from the Massachusetts Colony, and 
had made a settlement at Providence, Rhode 
Island, he became convinced of the necessity 
of being rebaptized. Having been first bap- 
tized by a Mr. Holliman, he, in turn, bap- 



68 THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 

tized Holliman and some others. Thus was 
organized, in 1639, the first Baptist Church 
in America. Williams became its minister 
for a few months, and then left the organi- 
zation, on the ground "that their baptism 
could not be right because it was not admin- 
istered by an apostle. ' ' But the Church con- 
tinued, and Roger Williams remained on 
friendly terms with it until the day of his 
death. Baptist Churches sprang up in Mas- 
sachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and 
Virginia. Often their members were called 
upon to suffer persecution for conscience' sake. 
In. 1 7 70 there were 77 Baptist Churches in 
the American Colonies, numbering about 
5000 members. In 1880 they reported 26,060 
Churches, with about 2,300,000 members. 

It may be well for us to ask the question, 
"What reasons can be assigned for this mar- 
velous growth?" 

And first, we may attribute it to the mar- 
velous activity and the deep religious earn- 
estness of 'the Baptists, and to the Divine 
blessing poured upon them as a reward of 
their faithful work. I should be very sorry 
to attribute entirely to human causes all this 
mighty growth, and am thankful to believe 
that the hand of the Lord has been with 
them, and is with them still. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 60 

Again, we may attribute much of God's 
blessing in that growth to the fact that they 
have laboured much among the poor. Our own 
numbers might be larger, and God's blessing 
upon us greater, if our efforts were expended 
more in that direction. The negroes of the 
Southern States contribute 784,465 members 
to the Baptist Churches, or more than one- 
quarter of the Baptists in the world. Here in 
Virginia, out of 210,000 Baptists, 137,000 
are among the colored people. 

Again, when we come to speak of human 
causes for this growth, it seems to me that 
the free congregational government of the 
Baptists has had great attractions for a people 
who had shaken off the fetters of kingly rule, 
and who were impatient of all authority ex- 
cept that which they themselves had a voice 
in making. It was natural for them to wish 
to realize in the Church all, and more than 
all, the liberty they had gained in the State. 
And it seems to me that the changed politi- 
cal order did more to commend the Baptist 
Yorm of Church government to the people of 
this country than did the belief that such 
form was found in the Apostolic Church. 

And lastly, among the human causes of 
this growth, I would mention that the Bap- 
tist Churches have set forward two or three 
6 



70 THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 

salient points of controversy, giving them, 
as we believe, an undue prominence, but 
arguing very plausibly upon them. The 
questions about the mode and subjects of 
baptism occupy a much larger place in their 
system than they do in ours. Their people 
generally pay more attention to these matters 
than ours do, and often succeed in capturing 
members of P^dobaptist Churches, who yield 
assent to the first plausible argument without 
taking pains to find out what strong argument 
can be made upon their own side. 

Let us now take a brief view of some of 
the distinctivefeatures of the Baptist Churches, 
ist. I have mentioned that of their con- 
gregational independence, and need not say 
anything further upon that head. 

2d. They reject baptism by sprinkling or 
pouring, insisting that it is no baptism at all, 
and that immersion is necessary to any law- 
ful baptism. 

3d. They reject infant baptism, and main- 
tain that no one should be admitted to bap- 
tism except upon his own profession of faith. 
4th. In this country they refuse to admit 
members of other Churches to the Lord's 
Supper, insisting that none but immersed 
members of Baptist Churches are entitled to 
the privileges of the Lord's Table. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 71 

5th. They oppose any union of Church 
and State, insisting that these organizations 
are, and ever ought to be, separate and dis- 
tinct from each other. 

6th. They insist upon the fullest religious 
liberty, and deny the right of the State to 
punish any man on account of his religious 
opinions. 

7th. They claim that the New Testament 
alone furnishes a sufficient rule of faith, and 
gives all necessary guidance in matters of 
Church government, discipline, and worship. 

On most of these points we join issue with 
them. The Apostolic form of Church gov- 
ernment we claim to be Episcopal, and not 
congregational. While we recognize immer- 
sion as a proper mode of baptism, w r e claim 
that it is not the only mode. We allow it, 
perhaps prefer it, but do not require it. We 
maintain the lawfulness of infant baptism, 
following the analogy of circumcision, and 
the practice of more than nineteen-twentieths 
of all Christians. We have nothing to say 
upon the union of Church and State. In 
this country we would oppose it, but we do 
not deny that it might be lawful under some 
circumstances. Though our formularies say 
nothing about the matter, we are ready now 
to go hand in hand with the Baptists in their 



72 THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 

advocacy of religious liberty. With respect 
to the Rule of Faith, we regard the Old and 
New Testaments together as God's Word, to 
be interpreted in their relation to each other. 
Both Testaments together furnish our Rule 
of Faith, and the New Testament is to be 
regarded, not as abolishing the Old, but as 
enlarging, spiritualizing, and fulfilling it. 

Our points of issue with the Baptists are 
numerous and important. And yet with 
them, as with other Christians, our points of 
agreement are more numerous and more im- 
portant. We have one Lord, and together 
we worship Him as Divine. As to our sin, 
and the source and means of our salvation, 
we hold one faith. Despite our controver- 
sies about its mode and subjects, when we 
consider its aim and meaning, we have one 
baptism. And there is one God and Father 
of all, who is above all and through all, and 
of whom we trust that He is in us all. And 
having all these grounds of unity, we can 
well afford to take a kindly view of the things 
wherein we differ; not, indeed, undervaluing 
these differences, but seeking some good even 
in them, and being more ready to speak the 
word of praise than the word of blame. 

We may congratulate the Baptists on the 
fact that in reviewing their history, they do 



THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 7 

not find its pages stained with a record of 
persecutions inflicted by them. In the good 
providence of God they are spared that 
shame. Whether it would have been the 
case if they had come into great power dur- 
ing the persecuting age, we cannot tell. A 
man does not always know his own heart. 
But in Rhode Island they bore a good record. 
Possession of power did not tempt them to 
refuse the soul liberty for which they pleaded 
as a persecuted minority. And now, thank 
God, we all stand upon the same platform of 
mutual tolerance. May it not relapse into 
indifferentism. 

And although we cannot agree with them 
in their idea of the nature of the Church of 
Christ, or see what they have gained in purity 
by rejecting infant baptism, or denying the 
Church to be God's training school rather 
than a congregation of separatists, yet we 
confess there is a certain moral grandeur in 
their idea; and if they can conform their 
practice to their ideal, they will do well. 

And we must give to the Baptist theory 
the credit of logical consistency. The parts 
of that system fit closely into each other. If 
in point of fact their membership of immersed 
believers is all it professes to be and ought to 
be, then it may be entrusted with congrega- 



74 THE BAPTIST CHURCHES. 

tional government without fear of any jar or 
discord. If members of Pedobaptist Churches 
have really never been baptized, then they 
ought not to be admitted to the Lord's Sup- 
per. I admire the consistency for which so 
many blame them, in insisting on close com- 
munion. If I find fault with them in this 
connection, it will be for denying my bap- 
tism, not for refusing me the Lord's Supper. 
Baptism is the Divinely appointed door to 
all other Church privileges. If they deny 
that you are baptized, they have no right to 
admit you to the Lord's Table. And when 
I know that they refuse you, not because 
they wish to do so, but because they feel they 
ought to do so, and in that refusal for con- 
sistency's sake suffer reproach, I admire and 
praise them for it. 

May we imitate in all things that consist- 
ency which is ever faithful to conscience. 
And in relation to our fellow Christians of 
whatever name, may we cultivate that charity 
which " bearethall things, believethall things, 
hopeth all things." And when we behold 
the large work of good which they have 
done and are doing in the name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours, it will not 
require a large drain upon that charity to 
make us think kindly and speak well of the 
Baptist Churches. 



No. VI. 
THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 

Ephesians /, 1-2. 

To the faithful in Christ Jesus : Grace be to you, and 
peace, from God our Father and from the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

When I come to speak of the Methodist 
Churches, I find my topic to be one of a pe- 
culiar and tender interest. In their polity 
and doctrine the Methodists resemble our 
own Church more than the other Christian 
bodies of which I have spoken. When we 
come to trace out our genealogy, we find 
ourselves near of kin. The Presbyterians 
and Baptists appear first in foreign lands, 
speaking foreign tongues. But Methodism 
is distinctly a product of Anglo-Saxon Chris- 
tianity. It had England for its birthplace, 
the English language for its native tongue. 
The time of its rise marks an important epoch 
in the history of England ; an epoch which, 
whatever cause of regret it may furnish us, 
furnishes yet more abundant cause for thank- 

(75) 



76 THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 

fulness. And not only from the nation of 
England did Methodism spring, but out of 
the bosom of the Church of England. Its 
founder was one of her devoted sons, who 
lived and died in her communion. So that 
the Methodists and our own Church have the 
same mother, and in our common origin 
have a tie of near relationship which should 
not be forgotten or lightly esteemed. If one 
of the daughters left the old home, we who 
retain the old heritage must bear her witness 
that it was not willingly or without reason 
that she left. And while we deplore the 
separation that still continues, the thought of 
our near kin, and the memory of the blame 
that lies upon our own side, must check the 
utterance of any unkind word when we speak 
of the Methodist Churches. 

Indeed, when I think how its good has 
gone out into all the world, accompanied by 
signal tokens of God's blessings ; when I call 
to mind how its holy influences have profited 
my own kindred, remembering that my earli- 
est prayers were lisped as I knelt at the feet 
of a devout Methodist mother, long since 
gone to her reward; and that that mother's 
place was taken, so far as another could take 
it, by a Methodist saint who still lives, and 
who never prays more earnestly than when 



THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 7 

she prays for me and for my work — how can 
I do otherwise than think tenderly and speak 
kindly of Methodism ? 

There is a charm about the history of 
Methodism, especially in its earlier stages ; 
a charm all the greater because it is so little 
concerned with doctrinal differences, and so 
much with the earnest, self-denying labours 
of its first promoters. We take sides on 
questions of doctrinal difference ; we unite 
in the admiration of any exhibition of Christ- 
like zeal. And the history of Methodism is 
fuller of deeds than of words. It had its 
starting point not in any doctrinal dispute. 
It was born, not of controversy, but of ac- 
tivity. The different phases taken by the 
movement as it grew, were such as arose out 
of practical needs. And while Methodism 
has a distinctive doctrinal position, it repre- 
sents not so much a school of religious 
thought as a hive of religious work. 

The name " Methodist" antedates the or- 
ganization. It was first applied in derision 
to a little company of students at the Uni- 
versity of Oxford, who, about 1729, had 
banded themselves together for purposes of 
Scriptural study and devotion. They had 
been called by some " Sacramentarians," and 
by others were nicknamed the "Pious 



78 THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 

Club." But the name "Methodist," taken 
from their regular methods of study and liv- 
ing, was that which clung to them, and they 
themselves afterwards adopted it as the 
chosen name of their organization. 

This little band of Methodists included, 
among others, the brothers John and Charles 
Wesley, and George Whitefield. All three 
entered the ministry of the Church of Eng- 
land. In 1735 the two Wesleys went to 
Georgia, and there for some time exercised 
their ministry. On the voyage to Georgia 
they met with a party of Moravians, and 
were much influenced by their earnestness 
and simple faith. By 1738 they had both 
returned to England \ and in that year John 
Wesley and Whitefield began preaching with 
wonderful power in the London churches. 
Sudden conversions, accompanied with in- 
tense excitement, attested the power of their 
ministry. And there spread before them an 
ample field for the exercise of that ministry. 
The old Puritans had lost their zeal. The 
Church of England had fallen into a low 
spiritual condition. In most places her min- 
isters were content with droning out lifeless 
sermons to empty pews. The gentlefolks 
were too often godless and dissolute \ and 
the lower orders ignorant and brutalized. 



THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 79 

And now these new preachers had spoken 
the word of God with a fresh power, so that 
men thronged to hear it. I do not wonder 
that the effect was startling, when such peo- 
ple were first brought face to face with the 
realities of God's Word. But such excite- 
ment was deprecated by most of the clergy. 
Many of them refused to open their churches 
to the new preachers, or to countenance 
their movement. That refusal spread their 
work instead of checking it. Debarred from 
preaching to hundreds in the churches, they 
preached to thousands in the open fields. 
Many converts were made ; and these, as the 
movement grew, were gathered into societies. 
There was no wish, on Wesley's part, to act 
independently of the Church of England. 
It was when the churches were closed against 
him that he built chapels. It was when the 
parish clergy refused to take faithful over- 
sight of his converts that he banded them 
into societies by themselves. These societies 
did not aim at rivalry with the Church, but 
sought a home within the Church. And if 
the authorities of the Church of England 
then had given a hearty recognition to the 
movement, which their successors now agree 
in praising as the means of England's re- 
generation, there need have been no separa- 



80 THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 

tion. John Wesley wished no separation; 
all his life long he protested against it ; but 
the stern logic of events brought it about. 

The story of the labours of the Wesleys 
and Whitefield is too long to tell in one ser- 
mon. There are some things in it we may 
not like. It has its painful episodes, as when 
we find Wesley and Whitefield engaged in 
bitter doctrinal strife ; a strife which deter- 
mined their separation. But take it all in 
all, we shall find it hard to point to a grander 
story of nobler effort than theirs, since the 
Apostolic age. Instant in season and out of 
season, they went to and fro throughout 
England, in persecutions often, taking their 
lives in their hands, counting it all joy to 
bear fatigues and endure sufferings for Christ's 
sake, and for the love of perishing souls. 
Doubtless they had their faults and incon- 
sistencies ; but the vastness of their good 
work, in that time of need, makes ample 
atonement for them. 

Whitefield and Wesley separated in 1742 ; 
Whitefield forming a Calvinistic, and Wesley 
an Arminian school of Methodists. White- 
field was the more eloquent and popular 
preacher. But John Wesley, in addition to 
great preaching powers, had a wonderful 
organizing faculty. By far the greater num- 



THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 81 

ber flocked around him, were gathered by 
him into societies, looked up to him as a 
spiritual father, and accorded to him an au- 
thority unparalleled in any Protestant organi- 
zation. He was at once the legislator, 
executive, and judge of Methodism. He 
stamped upon the organization his own doc- 
trinal opinions. He gave it the impress of 
his energy. His rule was absolute and auto- 
cratic, but it was a kindly rule, to which his 
followers willingly submitted ; and under 
his fostering care the societies grew, until, in 
the year before his death (1790), the world 
numbered 119,735 members of Methodist 
societies, of whom over 71,000 were in Great 
Britain and Ireland, and 43,265 in the 
United States, the remaining 5300 being in 
the West Indies and British America. As 
long as he lived he kept the societies united, 
and warned them against separation from the 
Church of England. But after his death, 
the seeds of opposition to the Church began 
to bear fruit. It was no wonder. The 
Church had opposed the Methodists, refusing 
to admit their organization within her pale, 
denying Episcopal ordination to their 
preachers when that was asked, — no wonder 
that many of those whose religious experi- 
ence was altogether gained in Methodist 



82 THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 

societies, should come to think, in spite of 
John Wesley, that the preachers who taught 
them what they knew of Christ, might also 
administer the sacraments. And when, find- 
ing the Church of England a hard step- 
mother, they left the old home, the fault lay 
quite as much with the mother as with the 
child. And to-day the Church of England 
repents the folly of ioo years ago, in not 
availing herself of the powerful agency of 
Methodism, and incorporating it as a part of 
her own life. 

The growth of Methodism within the past 
hundred years has been wonderful. In 1881 
there was held in London an CEcumenical 
Methodist Conference, which represented 
twenty-eight different branches of the Meth- 
odist family of Churches, with an aggregate 
of about five million church-members. Esti- 
mating four adherents to each member, 
we have in the world about twenty millions 
of people whose preferences are for the 
Methodist Churches. Of these five million 
members Great Britain contributes over 
815,000. But the United States holds the 
place of honour in the roll of Methodist 
progress, numbering 3,818,379 members in 
1881, or more than three - fourths of the 
Methodists in the world. Of this number 



THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 83 

more than 3,000,000 are in white Churches, 
and 803,344 are in colored Churches. Here 
in Virginia they are largely represented ; the 
Virginia Conference, which does not include 
a large part of the State, reporting last year 
60,180 white members. 

Whence this remarkable growth ? 

First of all, it is due to the fact that John 
Wesley stamped upon Methodism his own 
earnest, aggressive spirit, and practical piety. 
Methodism has never been much engaged in 
doctrinal speculations or disputes. Almost 
all its divisions have arisen on questions of 
polity and discipline. Its theology has been 
of a practical rather than a speculative sort. 
Its preachers have addressed themselves more 
to men's emotions than their intellect. And 
this has given them a wider audience ; for 
multitudes there are who are more open to 
approach by the feelings than by the reason. 
These preachers have gone forth with warm 
hearts and simple speech, speaking in such 
language as the people understood the great 
truths of the Gospel, and testifying that God 
had blessed these truths to their own souls. 
They have gone as pioneers to the frontiers 
of our civilization, and have given their tes- 
timony wherever there were souls to listen 
to it. And they have gone in reliance upon 



84 THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 

the Spirit of God, preaching the Word of 
God — sometimes crudely, no doubt, and with 
mistakes, but still faithfully; and we read 
God's blessing on their work of faith and 
labour of love in this marvelous increase. 
Let no man begrudge them the success they 
have so well earned. 

And further, that success may be accounted 
for in part by the fact that the Methodist 
system brings into play a large lay energy in 
its local preachers and exhorters ; that the 
itinerant system enables those in authority to 
put the right men in the right places, and is 
favourable to the development of preaching 
power. Methodism has an almost military 
discipline, and from that comes much of its 
effectiveness. 

It remains for me now to speak briefly of 
the doctrines and government of the Metho- 
dist Churches. In doctrine there is a general 
agreement among the various bodies of 
Methodists, and the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in this country may fairly represent 
them all. Their Articles of Religion are 
taken directly from the Church of England 
(except that which refers to the Rulers of 
the United States of America), and differ 
from our Articles only in what they leave 
out. So well satisfied are they with the 



THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 85 

definitions of doctrine in these Articles, that 
their discipline provides that "the General 
Conference shall not revoke, alter, or change, 
our Articles of Religion." We have, then, 
a common bond of union in these Articles! 
And if Methodism had no other doctrinal 
standards than its Twenty -five Articles of 
Religion, there would be no doctrinal differ- 
ences _ between us. But Methodism has its 
traditional theology, best represented in John 
Wesley's writings, and in England Wesley's 
sermons are taken as doctrinal standards. 
While their Articles leave a platform broad 
enough for Calvinists and Arminians to stand 
upon, yet all Methodism has followed its 
great leader in his opposition to Calvin- 
ism. 

The Methodist polity and discipline, as 
represented in the Methodist Episcopal 
Churches of this country, is a most interest- 
ing study. It is more like our polity- than 
that of other Protestant bodies, and yet there 
are many points of difference. They have 
Bishops; yet these Bishops are not located 
in particular Dioceses, but have a general 
joint superintendence over the whole Church 
By these Bishops the elders and deacons are 
ordained ; and yet the Bishops are not con- 
sidered as a distinct order, which alone has 
7 



86 THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 

power to ordain. The Methodist theory on 
this point squares with the difficulties of the 
history of Methodism, and acknowledges as 
valid the ordination of Dr. Coke as its first 
Bishop, at the hands of John Wesley. To 
their Bishops is committed most of the auto- 
cratic power which Wesley wielded. They 
fix the appointments of the preachers and 
presiding elders \ they preside in Annual 
Conferences; decide on questions of law; 
and from their joint decision on such ques- 
tions there is no appeal. Beneath the Bishops 
are presiding elders, visiting quarterly the 
charges in their districts. Traveling preach- 
ers, local preachers, class-leaders, and stew- 
ards, complete the list of officers in an or- 
ganization which, for compactness and effec- 
tiveness, has not its peer in Protestantism. 
Even in those matters about which we differ 
with them, we cheerfully concede to them 
a great practical wisdom in the ordering of 
their discipline ; and confess that in some 
things we might learn profitable lessons from 
them. And the more we study the Metho- 
dist organization the more we admire the 
practical wisdom of its founder, while we 
deplore that the societies which he meant 
to be auxilliary to our mother Church 
have become her rivals. May God bring us 



THE METHODIST CHURCHES, 87 

together again, in that close union which 
John Wesley hoped for. 

As it is, the Methodists and ourselves are 
next of kin among Christians. Our differ- 
ences in doctrine and polity are not great. 
They are great enough to keep us apart, un- 
less some defects are acknowledged, or con- 
cessions made ; but they are not great enough 
to forbid all hope of reunion. If John 
Wesley were back again, how he would 
labour to bring about that reunion. Its 
time may be far-off now \ but meantime let 
us not forget the things wherein we are at 
one. Let us rejoice that through their earnest 
zeal Christ is made known to many; and 
that in their midst are saints with whom we 
may count it a privilege to associate in 
heaven. Let us thank God for their work, 
whether they rejoice in ours or not. 

In the south aisle of Westminster Abbey, 
there is a tablet of white marble on which 
Methodists love to gaze. It bears the names 
of John and Charles Wesley — names sacred 
to Methodists — names that should be dear 
to us. For we too owe the Wesleys a* debt 
of gratitude. The marvelous work they did 
resulted not only in the formation of Metho- 
dist societies, but in the awakening of the 
English Church. The Wesleyan movement 



88 THE METHODIST CHURCHES. 

brought blessing even where its blessing was 
not acknowledged, and the regeneration of 
England sprang out of it. The example of 
John Wesley has incited many a clergyman 
to a more faithful ministry. The sweet, 
sacred songs of Charles Wesley have cheered 
many hearts in all Protestant communions. 
And it was meet and right that the Church 
which misunderstood and opposed them in 
their generation, the Church which still they 
loved and would not leave, should recognize 
their worth at last, and enshrine their 
memory in her most honoured temple, among 
the greatest of England's sons. May that 
act be prophetic of a time when, with kindly 
arms, our mother Church shall embrace their 
followers; when place and honour shall be 
found in our communion for the zeal and 
piety of the Methodist Churches \ when we 
all may be one. 

If he were here, none would respond to 
that wish with a heartier amen than John 
Wesley. 



No. VII. 

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH. 

Ephesians 2, 20. 

Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone. 

IT is to me a source of joy and comfort, 
that when I look abroad upon those 
branches of Christ's Church which differ 
from our own, I find so much that is worthy 
of commendation. Not reluctantly, but 
most gladly, do I embrace the opportunity 
of commending them. Would that there 
were everything to commend, and nothing 
to condemn. Like St. Paul, I desire to re- 
joice in that Christ is preached, whether by 
those who agree with me, or by those who 
differ. Without making light of the differ- 
ences, I would magnify the agreements, and 
trust that they are even more and greater 
than I can see. And the differences them- 
selves I would rather consider, not in the 
spirit of the heresy-hunter, seeking a cause 

(89) 



90 THE PR O TES TA NT E PISCO PA L CHUR CH. 

of accusation, but in the spirit of a peace- 
maker, seeking a bond of union. And if 
the search shall reveal to me a soul of good- 
ness in things evil, I shall hail that revela- 
tion with thankfulness. If it shall bring 
aught to light that shall make us look with 
kindlier eyes upon each other, we shall all 
be the better for it. We shall none of us be 
hurt by a little more of the leaven of Chris- 
tian charity. We shall be none the worse 
off for losing such prejudices as are born of 
ignorance. And glad am I to find, in study- 
ing the history and doctrines of other Chris- 
tian bodies, that our concords are more than 
our differences, much as we commonly mag- 
nifiy these differences ; and that we can here 
and there see something to commend in the 
differences themselves ; and can give, in most 
cases, a reasonable and charitable account of 
their origin. 

And I am glad also of this, that in all that 
I have noted of the excellencies of other 
Christian bodies, there has been nothing 
which has tempted me to be dissatisfied with 
our own Church. The more I see of other 
Churches, the more I love our own. In 
some respects these others may furnish us 
examples worthy of imitation ; we may con- 
fess some of them our superiors in zeal and 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 91 

self-denial, may concede to them the praise 
of greater effectiveness in organization; — 
but take it all in all, our broad doctrinal po- 
sition, our Apostolic polity, our reverent 
liturgical worship, and I think we have very 
good reason to be satisfied with our heritage 
in the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

And yet, in speaking in praise of our own 
Church, I am free to confess and to criticise 
the shortcomings of her children. We are 
not all what we ought to be, or what our 
Church system aims to make us. While the 
Church emphasizes reverence in worship, we 
are not all reverent. While she aims at 
spiritual worship, we do not all escape the 
snares of formalism. We acknowledge many 
faults on the part of our people. We claim, 
however, that upon the people, and not upon 
our Church system, the blame of these faults 
rests. And we confess that there are pages 
of our- Church history which we would wish 
otherwise written. We read that history 
sometimes with severe blame of those who 
exercised ecclesiastical authority. We de- 
plore the persecutions, the bigotry, the 
apathy, of some periods in our past, and 
have no word to offer in defence of these. 
And in this we stand on common ground 
with our fellow-Christians of other Churches. 



92 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

They also have cause to lament with us that 
dark pages occur among the bright ones of 
their history ; and none of us can well afford 
to cast stones at the other. With reference 
to the criticism of our history, we are indeed 
at a disadvantage in comparison with most 
other Churches, by reason of the fact that our 
history extends over a much longer period, 
and reaches back through darker times. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church, of 
which I am to speak to-night, claims a dis- 
tinguished ancestry, and makes much of that 
ancestry. The direct offspring of the Church 
of England, and her representative in this 
country, she is proud of her mother's long 
and noble lineage. Having preserved, un- 
broken at the Reformation, the long chain 
of Episcopal succession, and having reason 
to believe that that chain, still unbroken, 
reaches back to the Apostolic age, she does 
not make light of her pedigree. She takes 
a pardonable pride in the fact that she has a 
history, and that in this history there are 
bright and glorious chapters as well as dark 
ones. She can point to her martyr-roll, and 
her long record of good deeds. And while 
this record is not such as she can boast of 
before God, yet in comparison with others 
she need not be ashamed of it before men. 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 93 

The history of our Church in this country 
may be divided into three periods : ist. The 
Colonial period; 2d. The Revolutionary 
period of decay; 3d. The period of reorgani- 
zation and revival. 

ist. The Colonial period. Long before 
the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth 
Rock, the Gospel of Christ, as our Church 
has received it, was proclaimed in this coun- 
try. In the fruitless attempts at colonization 
during the reign of Elizabeth, were engaged 
men who had at heart the work of proclaim- 
ing Christ's Gospel among the natives. In 
1587, Manteo, an Indian chief, was baptized 
at Roanoke Island, and five days afterward 
came the baptism of Virginia Dare, the first 
white child born in the colony. When the 
first permanent settlement was made at James- 
town in 1607, there came with the colonists 
as their chaplain the Rev. Robert Hunt, a 
godly minister of the Church of England. 
In that year was built the first house of 
prayer in Virginia, and in that house were 
celebrated our services. Later in the same 
year an attempt at colonization was made in 
Maine, and our Church services were regu- 
larly held there for several months. As the 
work of colonization went on, the Episcopal 
Church found its way into each colony ; and 



94 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

in Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia became 
established by law. In New England it met 
with much opposition, and had few adherents; 
while in Virginia, at one period, almost all 
the people were Episcopalians. In 1775, 
Virginia contained 95 parishes, 164 churches 
and chapels, and 91 clergymen. But at that 
time there were many dissenters in Virginia, 
and many causes of complaint against the 
Church. The Church was identified closely 
with the State, and had to bear a large part 
of the odium which the acts of the English 
government were calling forth in the years 
preceding the Revolution. Its revenues were 
met by taxation of dissenters as well as of 
Churchmen. Its clergy were not all the sort 
of men they ought to be. There was need 
of a wise and godly Bishop ; and yet, during 
the whole of the Colonial period, no Bishop 
of the English Church set foot upon the 
shores of America. The Church in the 
Colonies was under the episcopal care of the 
Bishop of London, and for a large portion 
of this period he was represented in Virginia 
and Maryland by a presbyter as a commis- 
sary. This, however, was an insufficient sub- 
stitute for episcopal supervision. The com- 
missary's powers were too limited ; and being 
a presbyter only, he could not confirm or 



THE PR O TES TANT E PISCO PA L CHUR CH. 95 

ordain. All candidates for the ministry had 
to be sent to England for ordination ; a ne- 
cessity which, no doubt, kept out of the 
ministry much hopeful material. While, 
strange to say, greaf as was the need of a 
Bishop, the proposition to have a Bishop 
consecrated for America met with small 
favour in Virginia. 

With the Revolutionary period came decay 
and downfall to the Episcopal Church, par- 
ticularly in those colonies in which she had 
been established by law. Most of the clergy 
were loyalists, and, by continuing to use the 
prayers for the king, brought upon themselves 
the hatred of their people. Of the 91 cler- 
gymen in Virginia when the war commenced, 
only 26 were to be found at its close. 
Churches and chapels in almost every parish 
had gone to ruin. The Church had been 
disestablished, on petition of the dissenters. 
With but few clergy left, and fewer still who 
were worth having, with no Bishop to ordain 
others in their places, despoiled of her en- 
dowments, and hated because of her connec- 
tion with the mother country, the downfall 
of the Episcopal Church, especially in Vir- 
ginia, seemed to be complete. Then her 
enemies had their opportunity to triumph 
over her, and they did not fail to make the 



96 THE PR O TES TA NT EP IS COP A L CHUR CH. 

most of it. Soon, from being the greatest 
and proudest of the religious bodies of the 
State, she became almost the feeblest and 
the most despised. Her condition was not 
so deplorable in other States, but it was bad 
enough everywhere. 

Then came the period of reorganization. 
In this the Church in Connecticut was fore- 
most, electing Dr. Samuel Seabury as its 
Bishop, and securing his consecration at the 
hands of the Scottish Bishops, in 1784. In 
the same year steps were taken towards the 
formation of a General Convention. In 
1785 the Convention met and proposed for 
use a Book of Common Prayer, which did 
not meet with much favour in England, and 
was finally rejected in 1789 for our present 
Prayer Book, which adheres more closely to 
that of the Church of England. In 1787 
Bishops White and Provost were consecrated 
for Pennsylvania and New York by the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and others, and in 1790 
Bishop Madison was consecrated in England 
for Virginia. In 1801 the Articles of Re- 
ligion were adopted. Slowly, but surely, the 
Church struggled to her feet again. She had 
hard work before her, especially in Virginia, 
but by the grace of God faithful sons were 
raised up, and these went forth to their 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 97 

labour in His power and found that labour 
blessed of Him. Under such faithful Bish- 
ops as Moore, Meade, Johns, and Whittle, 
the Episcopal Church in Virginia has greatly 
prospered. We have now within this Dio- 
cese 151 clergy and 14**53 communicants. 
Throughout the United States we number 
63 Bishops, 3472 clergy, and 360,194 com- 
municants. The annual contributions for all 
purposes during the past three years have 
averaged $9,585,277, or more than $26.50 
for each communicant in the Church. More 
than half of this amount has been expended 
outside of ministerial salaries and expendi- 
tures. $419,487 annually has been expended 
for Home Missions, and $115,659 for Foreign 
Missions. Among the Church institutions 
reported to the last General Convention are 
17 colleges, 16 theological institutions, 97 
academies, 32 Church homes, 48 orphanages, 
and 44 hospitals. If we cannot boast of as 
large numbers as some of our neighbours, we 
re ay thank God that He has given us, in pro- 
portion to our numbers, an effectiveness in 
good works which will bear comparison with 
that of any Church in the land. And we are 
thankful to note that, slowly but surely, the 
numbers are coming too. We are gaining 
upon the population, and the rapidly increas- 



98 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

ing missionary interest bids fair to swell our 
statistics beyond any previous rate of in- 
crease. May God grant that whatever work 
is done may be done thoroughly, that our 
growth may not be as the sudden upspring- 
ing of Jonah's gourd, but like the slow, 
steady growth of a giant oak. 

Let us turn now to some of the distinc- 
tive features of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. For it is not so much on account of 
her past history that we are attached to her, 
but much more on account of what she is. 

First of all, it is important to ask of any 
Church whether it is truly a Church of Christ 
— whether in its teaching He is duly exalted. 
Apply that test to our own Church, and she 
is not found wanting. There is no ambiguity 
in her testimony to the Divinity of her Lord, 
and the greatness of His saving work. She 
proclaims Him King of kings and Lord of 
lords. She bears clear witness to the sac- 
rificial nature of His death. She sets forth 
unmistakably the sinfulness of man, and his 
utter dependence on God's grace in Christ. 
She knows of no way of justification save 
that through faith in Jesus Christ. She ac- 
knowledges but one Mediator between God 
and men, the Man Christ Jesus. 

Then she is Protestant in her position re- 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 99 

garding the Rule of Faith. She is not wil- 
ling to accept as Articles of Faith any 
es which may proved by i 

hire. Bat in this she does not dii 
the OKI Testament from the New, 

do; but intei m in their mutual re- 

the Light 

which early Church history throws upon 
puted f the In lj but 

thankfully makes use o\ it, and finds it turn 

hei account. 

:thermon. pro- 

clair diligently 

j'ture and ancient auti 

that from the Apostles 1 tim been 

these Ord 

id Deacons." 

smiles at the arguments of th< plead 

>p and i 
once used to designate the same office, the 
Epis< [ tated in some mysterious 

WCOnd or third centu: 
remembers that those who deny the 

lost it ; and is thankful that her 
circumstances in the Reformation age did 
not compel her to lose the Episcopate, and 
then tempt her to deny it. But while she 
holds firmly to the Episcopate herself, and 
requires that all who minister within her pale 



100 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

shall be Episcopally ordained, she has not 
one word to say as to the validity of the 
orders of other Churches. Her members 
are free to form their own convictions as to 
that matter, but they are not free to define 
these conviction as doctrines of the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church. 

While our Church regards Episcopacy as 
the Apostolical Church government, from 
which she is not free to depart ; she does not 
hold that all the details of Church polity are 
laid down in the New Testament. She suits 
the details of her polity to the circumstances 
in which she is placed. In this country she 
points with pride to the agreement of her 
institutions with those of the republic. 
Bishops, clergy, and laity, legislate in her 
General Conventions, and no measure can 
become law without the concurrence of all 
three. We do not go so far as others, and 
claim as of Divine right those features of 
polity which harmonize only with republican 
government; for we could conceive no 
stronger argument against the Divine right 
of any form of polity for a Catholic Church 
whose marching orders bid it go into all 
the world, than the charge that it was in- 
consistent with any form of government save 
that of a republic. 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 101 

Again, the Protestant Episcopal Church 
holds to a liturgical worship. Indeed, it is 
one of the features which distinguish her 
among Protestant Churches, that she empha- 
sizes the duty of worship in her services. 
Others make preaching by far the greater 
part of their religious service; she gives to 
worship the first place, and to preaching the 
second. And in order that this worship may 
be with the understanding as well as with the 
spirit, she sets forth a form of worship. We 
thus can have common prayer in oar services. 
We know beforehand what we are to pray for. 
We are in no danger of being startled by 
strange or irreverent expressions in the pray- 
ers of our public services; the excellence 
and appropriateness of these prayers being 
independent of the qualifications of our 
ministers. And we not only hold the prin- 
ciple of liturgical worship, but use a liturgy, 
which for beauty and completeness has been 
praised above all others. It has been hal- 
lowed by sacred and tender associations. 
Many of its prayers have been in use for 
more than 1300 years. A thousand years 
before Columbus discovered this continent 
Christian saints were breathing out their de- 
sires to God in prayers which are enshrined 
among the jewels of our liturgy. 



102 THE PRO PES TANT EPISCOPAL CHUR CH. 

And lastly, the Protestant Episcopal Church 
has a broad doctrinal platform. Holding to 
certain essentials, both of doctrine and polity, 
with an undoubting firmness, she leaves large 
room for liberty in non-essentials. Upon her 
platform may stand the Calvinist and the 
Arminian, the High Churchman and the 
Low Churchman. Here, if they will, they 
may dwell in peace. Nowhere in Christen- 
dom do we find different schools of thought 
dwelling together more peacefully, and labour- 
ing more harmoniously, than in our own 
Church. If ever Protestant Christians are 
to be united they will find nowhere a broader 
or a better basis of union than in the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church. 

We do not stand alone among Christians 
in the most striking features of our system. 
We may be few in the United States, but this 
country does not comprise all the world. It 
is estimated that there are in the world about 
three hundred and ninety millions of Chris- 
tians. Of these over three hundred millions are 
Episcopalians, who claim for their Bishops an 
Apostolical succession. Over three hundredand 
seventy millions practice infant baptism. Over 
three hundred millions use liturgical services. 

And our Church is meeting with the favor 
of thoughtful Christian men. A very large 



THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 103 

proportion of our clergy is composed of 
those who have come to us from the ministry 
of other Churches. Baptist, Methodist, 
Presbyterian, Congregational, and Unitarian 
ministers, with here and there a Roman 
Catholic priest, have come in to swell our 
ranks. Among them were men eminent for 
learning and piety, whose position in their 
own communion was well established, whose 
ties, binding them to that communion, were 
strong and hard to break. Their learning 
revealed to them the strength of our position, 
their piety sought a congenial home within 
our fold. They came and were welcome ; 
they remain and are satisfied. While such 
testimonies are given to us of the goodliness 
of our heritage we will not complain of it. 
Thanking God for the day-dawn, we will 
hope for the noontide. Recognizing with 
gratitude the good that is in other Christian 
Churches, and praying that their good may 
increase yet more and more, we need not 
wish to be in any other than our own. And 
w r e look with hope for a good time coming, 
when our fellow-Christians of other names 
shall appreciate more highly the Scriptural 
doctrine, the reverent worship, the conser- 
vative polity, and the broad charity of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. 



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